Thomas Banchoff (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195323405
- eISBN:
- 9780199869237
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323405.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Sikhism
Globalization has spawned more active transnational religious communities, creating a powerful force in world affairs. This book explores the patterns of cooperation and conflict that mark this new ...
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Globalization has spawned more active transnational religious communities, creating a powerful force in world affairs. This book explores the patterns of cooperation and conflict that mark this new religious pluralism. Shifting religious identities have encouraged interreligious dialogue and greater political engagement around global challenges, including international development, conflict resolution, transitional justice, and bioethics. At the same time, interreligious competition has contributed to political conflict and running controversy over the meaning and scope of religious freedom. In this volume, leading scholars from a variety of disciplines examine how the forces of religious pluralism and globalization are playing out on the world stage.Less
Globalization has spawned more active transnational religious communities, creating a powerful force in world affairs. This book explores the patterns of cooperation and conflict that mark this new religious pluralism. Shifting religious identities have encouraged interreligious dialogue and greater political engagement around global challenges, including international development, conflict resolution, transitional justice, and bioethics. At the same time, interreligious competition has contributed to political conflict and running controversy over the meaning and scope of religious freedom. In this volume, leading scholars from a variety of disciplines examine how the forces of religious pluralism and globalization are playing out on the world stage.
Thomas Banchoff
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195323405
- eISBN:
- 9780199869237
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323405.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Sikhism
This chapter sets out a working definition of religious pluralism in world affairs, discusses its relationship with globalization, and explores six of its related dimensions: fragile identity ...
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This chapter sets out a working definition of religious pluralism in world affairs, discusses its relationship with globalization, and explores six of its related dimensions: fragile identity politics, strong ethical commitments, international-national-local linkages, interfaith and intrafaith dynamics, religious-secular interaction, and the centrality of the United States. The overview of these dimensions serves to introduce the individual essays, compare their arguments, and sketch the overall contours of religious pluralism, globalization, and world politics in the contemporary era.Less
This chapter sets out a working definition of religious pluralism in world affairs, discusses its relationship with globalization, and explores six of its related dimensions: fragile identity politics, strong ethical commitments, international-national-local linkages, interfaith and intrafaith dynamics, religious-secular interaction, and the centrality of the United States. The overview of these dimensions serves to introduce the individual essays, compare their arguments, and sketch the overall contours of religious pluralism, globalization, and world politics in the contemporary era.
Amanda Porterfield
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195323443
- eISBN:
- 9780199869145
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323443.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Porterfield warns that “religious pluralism” often serves as a code word in higher education for an approach to the study of religion that idealizes the positive aspects of religion and understates ...
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Porterfield warns that “religious pluralism” often serves as a code word in higher education for an approach to the study of religion that idealizes the positive aspects of religion and understates the negative. She argues, instead, that the academic study of religion needs to be rigorously objective and appropriately critical. Worrying that talk about a postsecular turn in American culture may also encourage an advocatory and non‐critical approach to religion, she champions a genuinely “secular” pedagogy (but not secularist) which neither promotes nor denigrates religion.Less
Porterfield warns that “religious pluralism” often serves as a code word in higher education for an approach to the study of religion that idealizes the positive aspects of religion and understates the negative. She argues, instead, that the academic study of religion needs to be rigorously objective and appropriately critical. Worrying that talk about a postsecular turn in American culture may also encourage an advocatory and non‐critical approach to religion, she champions a genuinely “secular” pedagogy (but not secularist) which neither promotes nor denigrates religion.
Kenneth A. Strike
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199253661
- eISBN:
- 9780191601972
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253668.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Kenneth Strike’s essay on pluralism, personal identity, and freedom of conscience, takes up the concept of identity, and contrasts cultural and religious pluralism. He argues that the issues of ...
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Kenneth Strike’s essay on pluralism, personal identity, and freedom of conscience, takes up the concept of identity, and contrasts cultural and religious pluralism. He argues that the issues of affiliational obligation and recognition are often different in these two types of pluralism, and that religious groups are often asking for something very different from cultural groups. Strike makes a case for a more fluid conception of the idea of identity and against its essentialist form; he holds, e.g. that some of his affiliations are stronger than others and more tied to his sense of a larger self, but it is questionable, he argues, whether any of these affiliations could not be re-evaluated without loss of the larger idea of the self. Strike does allow that members of groups more oppressed than his might certainly rally around the attributes that they hold in common, and he is sympathetic to this strategic function of identity. Nevertheless, he wants to hold onto the individualized and phenomenological conception of identity: identity is whatever the agent feels it to be.Less
Kenneth Strike’s essay on pluralism, personal identity, and freedom of conscience, takes up the concept of identity, and contrasts cultural and religious pluralism. He argues that the issues of affiliational obligation and recognition are often different in these two types of pluralism, and that religious groups are often asking for something very different from cultural groups. Strike makes a case for a more fluid conception of the idea of identity and against its essentialist form; he holds, e.g. that some of his affiliations are stronger than others and more tied to his sense of a larger self, but it is questionable, he argues, whether any of these affiliations could not be re-evaluated without loss of the larger idea of the self. Strike does allow that members of groups more oppressed than his might certainly rally around the attributes that they hold in common, and he is sympathetic to this strategic function of identity. Nevertheless, he wants to hold onto the individualized and phenomenological conception of identity: identity is whatever the agent feels it to be.
Jacqueline Mariña
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199206377
- eISBN:
- 9780191709753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206377.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter explores the significance of Schleiermacher's understanding of moral transformation in regard to the problem of religious pluralism. Though an analysis of arguments found in On Religion, ...
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This chapter explores the significance of Schleiermacher's understanding of moral transformation in regard to the problem of religious pluralism. Though an analysis of arguments found in On Religion, as well as in the Christian Faith, it is argued that Schleiermacher's theory of religion offers a coherent account of how it is possible that differing religious traditions are all based on the same experience of the absolute. A significant problem facing the religious pluralist, however, is how to distinguish between genuine and illusory religious experience. The chapter examines Schleiermacher's criteria for making such judgments. Since the immediate self-consciousness, the locus of the self's relation to the divine, also stands in relation to the moments of the sensuous self consciousness, it is the character of this relation between the immediate, transcendental self-consciousness and the moments of the sensuous self consciousness that determines how the world is understood, valued, and felt. Consequently for Schleiermacher, the test of true piety lies in how persons view and value the world and others around them, and in the actions that issue from these ways of taking the world.Less
This chapter explores the significance of Schleiermacher's understanding of moral transformation in regard to the problem of religious pluralism. Though an analysis of arguments found in On Religion, as well as in the Christian Faith, it is argued that Schleiermacher's theory of religion offers a coherent account of how it is possible that differing religious traditions are all based on the same experience of the absolute. A significant problem facing the religious pluralist, however, is how to distinguish between genuine and illusory religious experience. The chapter examines Schleiermacher's criteria for making such judgments. Since the immediate self-consciousness, the locus of the self's relation to the divine, also stands in relation to the moments of the sensuous self consciousness, it is the character of this relation between the immediate, transcendental self-consciousness and the moments of the sensuous self consciousness that determines how the world is understood, valued, and felt. Consequently for Schleiermacher, the test of true piety lies in how persons view and value the world and others around them, and in the actions that issue from these ways of taking the world.
John O. Voll
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195323405
- eISBN:
- 9780199869237
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323405.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Sikhism
In a globalizing world, members of the same religious community, anchored in different parts of the world, have greater capacity to increase their cultural, social, and economic links with one ...
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In a globalizing world, members of the same religious community, anchored in different parts of the world, have greater capacity to increase their cultural, social, and economic links with one another. Ironically, this chapter points out how the rise of religious pluralism amid globalization has also strengthened the hand of Muslim leaders such as Osama Bin Laden, intent on destroying pluralism altogether. Al-Qaeda preaches peace but glorifies violence. Bin Laden’s view that violent jihad is an obligation on individual believers isolates him from leading Muslim scholars and jurists. Still, he has been able to gather and hold a sizable following, through dramatic actions, but also through the very same communications technologies that drive religious pluralism and create soft power in world affairs.Less
In a globalizing world, members of the same religious community, anchored in different parts of the world, have greater capacity to increase their cultural, social, and economic links with one another. Ironically, this chapter points out how the rise of religious pluralism amid globalization has also strengthened the hand of Muslim leaders such as Osama Bin Laden, intent on destroying pluralism altogether. Al-Qaeda preaches peace but glorifies violence. Bin Laden’s view that violent jihad is an obligation on individual believers isolates him from leading Muslim scholars and jurists. Still, he has been able to gather and hold a sizable following, through dramatic actions, but also through the very same communications technologies that drive religious pluralism and create soft power in world affairs.
Abdulaziz Sachedina
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195139914
- eISBN:
- 9780199848935
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195139914.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
The chapter characterizes religion as a major contributor to the seemingly endless conflicts between different persuasions and cultures. These conflicts and the attendant atrocities committed against ...
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The chapter characterizes religion as a major contributor to the seemingly endless conflicts between different persuasions and cultures. These conflicts and the attendant atrocities committed against innocent civilians, have imparted a dire urgency to the moral imperative of recognizing the human dignity of the other, regardless of his or her religious, ethnic, and cultural affiliations. Recognition of religious pluralism within a community of the faithful promises to advance the principle of inclusiveness that would counsel accommodation, not conflict, among competing claims to religious truth in religiously and culturally heterogeneous societies. As written in the Koran (K. 2:213), three facts emerge: the unity of humankind under One God: the particularity of religions brought by the prophets; and the role of revelation (the Book) in resolving the differences that touch communities of faith. All three are fundamental to the Koranic conception of religious pluralism.Less
The chapter characterizes religion as a major contributor to the seemingly endless conflicts between different persuasions and cultures. These conflicts and the attendant atrocities committed against innocent civilians, have imparted a dire urgency to the moral imperative of recognizing the human dignity of the other, regardless of his or her religious, ethnic, and cultural affiliations. Recognition of religious pluralism within a community of the faithful promises to advance the principle of inclusiveness that would counsel accommodation, not conflict, among competing claims to religious truth in religiously and culturally heterogeneous societies. As written in the Koran (K. 2:213), three facts emerge: the unity of humankind under One God: the particularity of religions brought by the prophets; and the role of revelation (the Book) in resolving the differences that touch communities of faith. All three are fundamental to the Koranic conception of religious pluralism.
Peter L. Berger
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195307221
- eISBN:
- 9780199785513
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195307221.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the institutional and personal implications of globalized religion, and the relation of these to democracy. Topics covered include the institutional and cognitive implications ...
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This chapter examines the institutional and personal implications of globalized religion, and the relation of these to democracy. Topics covered include the institutional and cognitive implications of religious pluralism; and the “voluntary imperative” concept, which imposes itself whenever religious pluralism predominates. The chapter argues that the relation between pluralism and democracy is complex. One cannot simply say that pluralism is either good or bad for democracy. It will be either, depending on the response to it by both religious and political institutions.Less
This chapter examines the institutional and personal implications of globalized religion, and the relation of these to democracy. Topics covered include the institutional and cognitive implications of religious pluralism; and the “voluntary imperative” concept, which imposes itself whenever religious pluralism predominates. The chapter argues that the relation between pluralism and democracy is complex. One cannot simply say that pluralism is either good or bad for democracy. It will be either, depending on the response to it by both religious and political institutions.
S.N. Balagangadhara
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198082965
- eISBN:
- 9780199081936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198082965.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter develops an alternative perspective on the issue of secularism in India. Contemporary India confronts acute problems of religious pluralism, which pose fundamental challenges to the ...
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This chapter develops an alternative perspective on the issue of secularism in India. Contemporary India confronts acute problems of religious pluralism, which pose fundamental challenges to the existing political theory concerning religious toleration. As the Indian society consists of both pagan traditions and Semitic religions, the secular state confronts a set of difficulties unknown to the western cultural background from which it originally emerged. More specifically, by tackling the problem of religious conversion, this chapter shows that the dominant way of conceiving state neutrality becomes problematic in the Indian context. The argument suggests that the post-independent Indian state, modelled after the liberal democracies in the West, is the harbinger of religious violence in India because of the way it conceives of state neutrality. More of ‘secularism’ in India will end up feeding what it fights: the so-called ‘Hindu fundamentalism’.Less
This chapter develops an alternative perspective on the issue of secularism in India. Contemporary India confronts acute problems of religious pluralism, which pose fundamental challenges to the existing political theory concerning religious toleration. As the Indian society consists of both pagan traditions and Semitic religions, the secular state confronts a set of difficulties unknown to the western cultural background from which it originally emerged. More specifically, by tackling the problem of religious conversion, this chapter shows that the dominant way of conceiving state neutrality becomes problematic in the Indian context. The argument suggests that the post-independent Indian state, modelled after the liberal democracies in the West, is the harbinger of religious violence in India because of the way it conceives of state neutrality. More of ‘secularism’ in India will end up feeding what it fights: the so-called ‘Hindu fundamentalism’.
Robert McKim
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199774029
- eISBN:
- 9780199932610
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199774029.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
The main focus in this chapter is on the claim that a number of religions do equally well in terms of truth, though there is also some attention to pluralism about salvation, or salvific pluralism, ...
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The main focus in this chapter is on the claim that a number of religions do equally well in terms of truth, though there is also some attention to pluralism about salvation, or salvific pluralism, which is roughly the view that a number of religious traditions provide equally viable means to salvation. Topics discussed include pluralism that is limited to a particular area of inquiry, such as a “religious ultimate” or a “supreme religious reality”; various interpretations of Hick's pluralistic hypothesis; various objections to Hick; and some additional forms of religious pluralism.Less
The main focus in this chapter is on the claim that a number of religions do equally well in terms of truth, though there is also some attention to pluralism about salvation, or salvific pluralism, which is roughly the view that a number of religious traditions provide equally viable means to salvation. Topics discussed include pluralism that is limited to a particular area of inquiry, such as a “religious ultimate” or a “supreme religious reality”; various interpretations of Hick's pluralistic hypothesis; various objections to Hick; and some additional forms of religious pluralism.
Grace Davie
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195307221
- eISBN:
- 9780199785513
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195307221.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter has three sections. The first discusses the conceptual difficulties arising from the study of religious pluralism and democracy, drawing on the work of James Beckford — particularly his ...
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This chapter has three sections. The first discusses the conceptual difficulties arising from the study of religious pluralism and democracy, drawing on the work of James Beckford — particularly his discussion of religious pluralism as social construct. The second examines the study of new religious movements and the questions that such movements raise for democracy. The third section discusses the growing faith communities in Europe and the gradual process of accommodation, or otherwise, as these communities become part of their chosen societies. The British case is developed in some detail, with the French and Dutch cases offering points of comparison.Less
This chapter has three sections. The first discusses the conceptual difficulties arising from the study of religious pluralism and democracy, drawing on the work of James Beckford — particularly his discussion of religious pluralism as social construct. The second examines the study of new religious movements and the questions that such movements raise for democracy. The third section discusses the growing faith communities in Europe and the gradual process of accommodation, or otherwise, as these communities become part of their chosen societies. The British case is developed in some detail, with the French and Dutch cases offering points of comparison.
Reid L. Neilson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195369786
- eISBN:
- 9780199871292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369786.003.014
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter turns to the subject of what Joseph Smith himself had to say about Mormonism's relationship to other religions, and ways of accommodating religious pluralism. It further traces the ...
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This chapter turns to the subject of what Joseph Smith himself had to say about Mormonism's relationship to other religions, and ways of accommodating religious pluralism. It further traces the trajectories of Mormon thought on Eastern religious traditions, following the death of Smith, during the balance of the 19th century. Rather than fitting neatly into conventional religious studies paradigms, the chapter argues that the Latter-day Saints warrant their own categorization as restoration inclusivists.Less
This chapter turns to the subject of what Joseph Smith himself had to say about Mormonism's relationship to other religions, and ways of accommodating religious pluralism. It further traces the trajectories of Mormon thought on Eastern religious traditions, following the death of Smith, during the balance of the 19th century. Rather than fitting neatly into conventional religious studies paradigms, the chapter argues that the Latter-day Saints warrant their own categorization as restoration inclusivists.
Amanda Porterfield
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199931903
- eISBN:
- 9780199345779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931903.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Religious pluralism is a term for religious diversity that imputes positive meaning to religion and encourages appreciative understanding of its many forms. Rooted in Protestant idealism and emerging ...
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Religious pluralism is a term for religious diversity that imputes positive meaning to religion and encourages appreciative understanding of its many forms. Rooted in Protestant idealism and emerging from Protestant institutions in the United States, the concept of religious pluralism has deeply informed the fields of religious studies and American religious history since World War II. Sidney Ahlstrom's Religious History of the American People (1972) established the construct as a framework for understanding both the trajectory of American religious history and the ways in which the relationship between religion and democracy have played out. Both scholarly proponents and critics of religious pluralism have taken their cues from him, the former tending to see pluralism as a positive development for American society and politics, the latter charging it with either being antithetical to biblical revelation or obstructive to critical inquiry.Less
Religious pluralism is a term for religious diversity that imputes positive meaning to religion and encourages appreciative understanding of its many forms. Rooted in Protestant idealism and emerging from Protestant institutions in the United States, the concept of religious pluralism has deeply informed the fields of religious studies and American religious history since World War II. Sidney Ahlstrom's Religious History of the American People (1972) established the construct as a framework for understanding both the trajectory of American religious history and the ways in which the relationship between religion and democracy have played out. Both scholarly proponents and critics of religious pluralism have taken their cues from him, the former tending to see pluralism as a positive development for American society and politics, the latter charging it with either being antithetical to biblical revelation or obstructive to critical inquiry.
Hugh McLeod
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199298259
- eISBN:
- 9780191711619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298259.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the trends towards greater moral and religious pluralism; at the undermining of respect and deference, which affected all established institutions, including the churches; at ...
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This chapter examines the trends towards greater moral and religious pluralism; at the undermining of respect and deference, which affected all established institutions, including the churches; at the signs of discontent within the various ideologically-based subcultures which had been a major aspect of life in most west European countries in the first half of the 20th century; at demands for reform in the church and at the radicalization of Christian students; at the changes in the relationship between ‘public’ and ‘private’; and at the still modest decline in church-going that was under way in the United States and also Britain, France, and West Germany. It is shown that the ‘early 1960s’ from about the later 1950s to 1962 or 1963 provided a bridge between the post-war years, with their urgent demands to return to normality and the all-embracing spirit of experiment and iconoclasm in the late 1960s; between the coldest years of the cold war and the utopian hopes of ‘1968’. Major religious changes were already under way: the post-war church-going boom had come to an end; the power and prestige which the churches had often enjoyed in the years after the war and the associated atmosphere of moral conservatism were increasingly resented and were coming under attack. It was also a time when reformers and radicals were making their voices heard again within the churches.Less
This chapter examines the trends towards greater moral and religious pluralism; at the undermining of respect and deference, which affected all established institutions, including the churches; at the signs of discontent within the various ideologically-based subcultures which had been a major aspect of life in most west European countries in the first half of the 20th century; at demands for reform in the church and at the radicalization of Christian students; at the changes in the relationship between ‘public’ and ‘private’; and at the still modest decline in church-going that was under way in the United States and also Britain, France, and West Germany. It is shown that the ‘early 1960s’ from about the later 1950s to 1962 or 1963 provided a bridge between the post-war years, with their urgent demands to return to normality and the all-embracing spirit of experiment and iconoclasm in the late 1960s; between the coldest years of the cold war and the utopian hopes of ‘1968’. Major religious changes were already under way: the post-war church-going boom had come to an end; the power and prestige which the churches had often enjoyed in the years after the war and the associated atmosphere of moral conservatism were increasingly resented and were coming under attack. It was also a time when reformers and radicals were making their voices heard again within the churches.
Courtney Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199938629
- eISBN:
- 9780199980758
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199938629.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter highlights the shared ground on which contemporary sociological visions of religious pluralism take shape. It argues that current approaches to pluralism developed in response to ...
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This chapter highlights the shared ground on which contemporary sociological visions of religious pluralism take shape. It argues that current approaches to pluralism developed in response to classical secularization theory's failure to account for the persistence of religiousness in the religiously plural United States. Observing that religious pluralism did not diminish religious fervor as secularization theory predicted, sociologists turned this theory on its head. They adopted a view wherein the diminishing state-church monopoly and the expansion of a civil society differentiated (and thus free) religion from other institutions. Religious groups were and are thus free to begin and end, thrive and fail, without regulation by the state. This framework shares stronger affinities with liberal political theory's conceptions of religion and civil society than it does with classical sociological approaches. The chapter considers John Locke's and Jean–Jacques Rousseau's arguments about religion and polity to identify their resonance with contemporary sociological models, and to similarly highlight the limits of these frameworks which are not often noted. It concludes by looking at how approaches shaped by theories of secularism may offer an opportunity to revive a broadly sociological approach to investigate these compelling issues.Less
This chapter highlights the shared ground on which contemporary sociological visions of religious pluralism take shape. It argues that current approaches to pluralism developed in response to classical secularization theory's failure to account for the persistence of religiousness in the religiously plural United States. Observing that religious pluralism did not diminish religious fervor as secularization theory predicted, sociologists turned this theory on its head. They adopted a view wherein the diminishing state-church monopoly and the expansion of a civil society differentiated (and thus free) religion from other institutions. Religious groups were and are thus free to begin and end, thrive and fail, without regulation by the state. This framework shares stronger affinities with liberal political theory's conceptions of religion and civil society than it does with classical sociological approaches. The chapter considers John Locke's and Jean–Jacques Rousseau's arguments about religion and polity to identify their resonance with contemporary sociological models, and to similarly highlight the limits of these frameworks which are not often noted. It concludes by looking at how approaches shaped by theories of secularism may offer an opportunity to revive a broadly sociological approach to investigate these compelling issues.
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195308532
- eISBN:
- 9780199785728
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195308532.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Religious groups have emerged as powerful political actors in post‐communist Eastern Europe, especially in predominantly Christian Orthodox countries like Romania. The book discusses the interplay ...
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Religious groups have emerged as powerful political actors in post‐communist Eastern Europe, especially in predominantly Christian Orthodox countries like Romania. The book discusses the interplay between religion and politics in six major areas of public affairs—nationalism and ethnic identity; confronting the communist past; restitution of Greek Catholic property abusively confiscated by communist authorities; elections and membership in political parties; religious instruction in public schools at pre‐university level; and sexuality, including abortion and prostitution. In each area, it discusses the negotiations between religious, political actors and civil society representatives; the dominance of the Orthodox Church relative to other religious groups; and the influence of denominations on legislation and governmental policy. While the Orthodox Church has asked for recognition as state, national church, religious minorities demanded equality, and the civil society asked for separation of church and state, Romanian post‐communist authorities have maintained a tight grip on religious affairs.Less
Religious groups have emerged as powerful political actors in post‐communist Eastern Europe, especially in predominantly Christian Orthodox countries like Romania. The book discusses the interplay between religion and politics in six major areas of public affairs—nationalism and ethnic identity; confronting the communist past; restitution of Greek Catholic property abusively confiscated by communist authorities; elections and membership in political parties; religious instruction in public schools at pre‐university level; and sexuality, including abortion and prostitution. In each area, it discusses the negotiations between religious, political actors and civil society representatives; the dominance of the Orthodox Church relative to other religious groups; and the influence of denominations on legislation and governmental policy. While the Orthodox Church has asked for recognition as state, national church, religious minorities demanded equality, and the civil society asked for separation of church and state, Romanian post‐communist authorities have maintained a tight grip on religious affairs.
Bret E. Carroll
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199931903
- eISBN:
- 9780199345779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931903.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
American religious pluralism—its symbolic expressions, its characteristic tensions and contests—play out nowhere more noticeably than on the landscape. Because exchanges among the nation's faiths are ...
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American religious pluralism—its symbolic expressions, its characteristic tensions and contests—play out nowhere more noticeably than on the landscape. Because exchanges among the nation's faiths are often about sacred space, which is inevitably contested, anyone seeking to comprehend American religious pluralism must turn for insight to geography. Religion generates claims on space and space is limited, religious pluralism necessarily involves multiple, overlapping, competing, and often conflicting claims—a geopolitics of sacred space in which individual and group claimants are required to engage, or at least remain mindful of, other claimants in the society. To understand these geopolitics fully involves constructing spatial analyses at different levels: local, regional, national, even transnational and global. Seeing American religious pluralism through the lens of geography offers important insights as we continue pursuing the spatial equity that is the geographic promise of the First Amendment.Less
American religious pluralism—its symbolic expressions, its characteristic tensions and contests—play out nowhere more noticeably than on the landscape. Because exchanges among the nation's faiths are often about sacred space, which is inevitably contested, anyone seeking to comprehend American religious pluralism must turn for insight to geography. Religion generates claims on space and space is limited, religious pluralism necessarily involves multiple, overlapping, competing, and often conflicting claims—a geopolitics of sacred space in which individual and group claimants are required to engage, or at least remain mindful of, other claimants in the society. To understand these geopolitics fully involves constructing spatial analyses at different levels: local, regional, national, even transnational and global. Seeing American religious pluralism through the lens of geography offers important insights as we continue pursuing the spatial equity that is the geographic promise of the First Amendment.
James L. Heft S.M.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199796656
- eISBN:
- 9780199919352
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199796656.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter highlights five general themes in contemporary US culture that leaders of Catholic high schools need to understand. The first two are clearly historically rooted: the stress on ...
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This chapter highlights five general themes in contemporary US culture that leaders of Catholic high schools need to understand. The first two are clearly historically rooted: the stress on individual and especially religious freedom, and then, as the different types of religious practices multiplied in the United States, the effort to privatize the expression of religion. The last three are recent cultural developments that are especially influential today. These are the impact of media, the therapeutic shape that religious belief takes in a culture that stresses individual choice in the midst of religious pluralism, and the growing number of people who have been described as the “spiritual but not religious”.Less
This chapter highlights five general themes in contemporary US culture that leaders of Catholic high schools need to understand. The first two are clearly historically rooted: the stress on individual and especially religious freedom, and then, as the different types of religious practices multiplied in the United States, the effort to privatize the expression of religion. The last three are recent cultural developments that are especially influential today. These are the impact of media, the therapeutic shape that religious belief takes in a culture that stresses individual choice in the midst of religious pluralism, and the growing number of people who have been described as the “spiritual but not religious”.
Alvin Plantinga
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195131932
- eISBN:
- 9780199867486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195131932.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Continuing an examination of proposed defeaters for Christian belief, I turn in this chapter to postmodernism and religious pluralism. Some of the claims that can be plausibly labeled “postmodern” ...
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Continuing an examination of proposed defeaters for Christian belief, I turn in this chapter to postmodernism and religious pluralism. Some of the claims that can be plausibly labeled “postmodern” are claims that conflict with Christian belief; in the first section of this chapter, I examine some of these claims. Among other things, I inquire as to whether Christian belief is defeated by (1) an argument from the historically conditioned character of religious and philosophical belief, or by (2) the view, often associated with Richard Rorty, that human beings construct the truth. After arguing that neither (1) nor (2) provide a defeater for Christian belief, I examine the question of whether a defeater for Christian belief can be found in the fact of religious pluralism, the fact that the world displays a bewildering and kaleidoscopic variety of religious and antireligious ways of thinking, all pursued by people of great intelligence and seriousness. I then consider and respond to two such proposed defeaters, the second of which involves the charge that there is a sort of egoism, arrogance, or arbitrariness in accepting Christian belief given the fact of religious pluralism; in doing so, I look in some detail at an argument Gary Gutting gives for this charge.Less
Continuing an examination of proposed defeaters for Christian belief, I turn in this chapter to postmodernism and religious pluralism. Some of the claims that can be plausibly labeled “postmodern” are claims that conflict with Christian belief; in the first section of this chapter, I examine some of these claims. Among other things, I inquire as to whether Christian belief is defeated by (1) an argument from the historically conditioned character of religious and philosophical belief, or by (2) the view, often associated with Richard Rorty, that human beings construct the truth. After arguing that neither (1) nor (2) provide a defeater for Christian belief, I examine the question of whether a defeater for Christian belief can be found in the fact of religious pluralism, the fact that the world displays a bewildering and kaleidoscopic variety of religious and antireligious ways of thinking, all pursued by people of great intelligence and seriousness. I then consider and respond to two such proposed defeaters, the second of which involves the charge that there is a sort of egoism, arrogance, or arbitrariness in accepting Christian belief given the fact of religious pluralism; in doing so, I look in some detail at an argument Gary Gutting gives for this charge.
Fenggang Yang
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199930890
- eISBN:
- 9780199980581
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199930890.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter introduces four types of state-religion relations in human history – religious monopoly, pluralism, oligopoly, and a total ban. It argues that religious oligopoly is the most common ...
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This chapter introduces four types of state-religion relations in human history – religious monopoly, pluralism, oligopoly, and a total ban. It argues that religious oligopoly is the most common practice in the world today and applies that understanding to the situation in China. The chapter illuminates the operation of triple markets in China: a red market of legal (officially permitted and regulated) religions; a black market of illegal religious groups and activities; and a grey market of spiritual organizations and practices of ambiguous legal status. This triple market is dynamic, as some groups, such as the Falun Gong, moved from ambiguous to illegal status, while some illegal underground Christian churches have moved into the gray category. The chapter draws upon these findings to challenge and refine dominant theories about the operation of religious markets.Less
This chapter introduces four types of state-religion relations in human history – religious monopoly, pluralism, oligopoly, and a total ban. It argues that religious oligopoly is the most common practice in the world today and applies that understanding to the situation in China. The chapter illuminates the operation of triple markets in China: a red market of legal (officially permitted and regulated) religions; a black market of illegal religious groups and activities; and a grey market of spiritual organizations and practices of ambiguous legal status. This triple market is dynamic, as some groups, such as the Falun Gong, moved from ambiguous to illegal status, while some illegal underground Christian churches have moved into the gray category. The chapter draws upon these findings to challenge and refine dominant theories about the operation of religious markets.
