Randall G. Styers
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195151077
- eISBN:
- 9780199835263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195151070.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The chapter begins by exploring various psychological theories in which magic is seen as a product of inchoate or inordinate desire. Whether asserting that magic is socially reactionary and ...
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The chapter begins by exploring various psychological theories in which magic is seen as a product of inchoate or inordinate desire. Whether asserting that magic is socially reactionary and authoritarian or fundamentally anti-social and anarchical, theorists have regularly seen magic as a threat to a productive social order. The dominant scholarly construction of magic has legitimated two distinct channels through which human needs are to be constructed and resolved: a spiritualized religious realm (to shape certain aspects of human identity and assuage internal tensions) and a rationalized scientific realm (to govern appropriate manipulation of the material world). With magic deployed as the stigmatized mediator between religion and science, the secularizing separation between these two channels is reinforced, and capitalism and Western science are relegated broad instrumental control of the material world. Even recent scholarly efforts to reverse the negative valence of magic maintain important elements of the traditional distinctions among religion, magic, and science and reinforce the paradigm in which rationalized religion and science are aligned with capitalist social relations.Less
The chapter begins by exploring various psychological theories in which magic is seen as a product of inchoate or inordinate desire. Whether asserting that magic is socially reactionary and authoritarian or fundamentally anti-social and anarchical, theorists have regularly seen magic as a threat to a productive social order. The dominant scholarly construction of magic has legitimated two distinct channels through which human needs are to be constructed and resolved: a spiritualized religious realm (to shape certain aspects of human identity and assuage internal tensions) and a rationalized scientific realm (to govern appropriate manipulation of the material world). With magic deployed as the stigmatized mediator between religion and science, the secularizing separation between these two channels is reinforced, and capitalism and Western science are relegated broad instrumental control of the material world. Even recent scholarly efforts to reverse the negative valence of magic maintain important elements of the traditional distinctions among religion, magic, and science and reinforce the paradigm in which rationalized religion and science are aligned with capitalist social relations.
Nancy T. Ammerman (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195305418
- eISBN:
- 9780199785094
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305418.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Life at the beginning of the 21st century is something the social theory of the last century would have found hard to explain. Science, capitalism, and politics are pervasive and powerful in the ...
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Life at the beginning of the 21st century is something the social theory of the last century would have found hard to explain. Science, capitalism, and politics are pervasive and powerful in the everyday lives of ever-expanding layers of the world’s population. But so is religion. This book is an attempt to let “everyday religion” raise critical questions about how we understand the role of religion in society. We take pluralism and choice as givens, for instance, but we find “rational choice” theories too thin to explain the religious expressions we document. We look for religion in both “private” and “public” spaces, and ask about the social circumstances of religion’s presence and absence. In the end, we find that no simple theory of secularization or revival can explain how modern religious lives unfold.Less
Life at the beginning of the 21st century is something the social theory of the last century would have found hard to explain. Science, capitalism, and politics are pervasive and powerful in the everyday lives of ever-expanding layers of the world’s population. But so is religion. This book is an attempt to let “everyday religion” raise critical questions about how we understand the role of religion in society. We take pluralism and choice as givens, for instance, but we find “rational choice” theories too thin to explain the religious expressions we document. We look for religion in both “private” and “public” spaces, and ask about the social circumstances of religion’s presence and absence. In the end, we find that no simple theory of secularization or revival can explain how modern religious lives unfold.
Douglas V. Porpora
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134919
- eISBN:
- 9780199834563
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195134915.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book is at once both a work of sociology and a work of ethical and religious philosophy. As a work of sociology, it contributes to the ongoing debate over secularization by documenting an ...
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This book is at once both a work of sociology and a work of ethical and religious philosophy. As a work of sociology, it contributes to the ongoing debate over secularization by documenting an alienation from the sacred at the level of emotion. Shows that even many religious Americans are emotionally estranged from the God they say they believe in, from any larger moral purpose, from the very meaning of life itself. As a work of moral and religious philosophy within a broad communitarian tradition, it calls our attention from moral procedure to moral purpose or moral idealism. Argues that moral purpose and coherent personal identity only return to us when we emotionally and defensibly reconnect with the cosmos at some sacred level. It accordingly makes an appeal for our reenchantment or resacralization of the world, for our self‐critical reorientation toward ultimate truth.Less
This book is at once both a work of sociology and a work of ethical and religious philosophy. As a work of sociology, it contributes to the ongoing debate over secularization by documenting an alienation from the sacred at the level of emotion. Shows that even many religious Americans are emotionally estranged from the God they say they believe in, from any larger moral purpose, from the very meaning of life itself. As a work of moral and religious philosophy within a broad communitarian tradition, it calls our attention from moral procedure to moral purpose or moral idealism. Argues that moral purpose and coherent personal identity only return to us when we emotionally and defensibly reconnect with the cosmos at some sacred level. It accordingly makes an appeal for our reenchantment or resacralization of the world, for our self‐critical reorientation toward ultimate truth.
Slavica Jakelić
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195342536
- eISBN:
- 9780199867042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342536.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter shows that during the 1960s there was an increasing affinity between the notion that de‐institutionalized religion is something good and the intellectual and social sensibilities of the ...
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This chapter shows that during the 1960s there was an increasing affinity between the notion that de‐institutionalized religion is something good and the intellectual and social sensibilities of the period. Two views on secularization and de‐institutionalization of religion, those of Christian theologian Harvey Cox and sociologist Peter L. Berger, mirrored the intellectual and social climate of the time and were broadly discussed and debated. In this chapter Slavica Jakelić argues that Berger and Cox's claims about the inevitable link between deinstitutionalization of religions and modernity were persuasive because they happened in a context in which “religionless religion” was increasingly becoming the ideal of religious life. Berger and Cox talked of the de‐institutionalization of religion as progress that brought about freedom for individuals to choose. Their prophecies of godlessness were the prophecies of freedom.Less
This chapter shows that during the 1960s there was an increasing affinity between the notion that de‐institutionalized religion is something good and the intellectual and social sensibilities of the period. Two views on secularization and de‐institutionalization of religion, those of Christian theologian Harvey Cox and sociologist Peter L. Berger, mirrored the intellectual and social climate of the time and were broadly discussed and debated. In this chapter Slavica Jakelić argues that Berger and Cox's claims about the inevitable link between deinstitutionalization of religions and modernity were persuasive because they happened in a context in which “religionless religion” was increasingly becoming the ideal of religious life. Berger and Cox talked of the de‐institutionalization of religion as progress that brought about freedom for individuals to choose. Their prophecies of godlessness were the prophecies of freedom.
Lloyd P. Gartner
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195134681
- eISBN:
- 9780199848652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195134681.003.0021
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
A review of the book, Lest Memory Cease: Finding Meaning in the American Jewish Past by Henry L. Feingold is presented. The book presents Feingold's collected articles, some of which originated as ...
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A review of the book, Lest Memory Cease: Finding Meaning in the American Jewish Past by Henry L. Feingold is presented. The book presents Feingold's collected articles, some of which originated as lectures to Jewish organizations, and others that appeared mainly in the labor Zionist magazine, Jewish Frontier. One of Feingold's virtues, present here, is a skillful analysis of the contemporary American Jewish scene. He draws historical parallels with restraint, his articles and lectures are fluent and read easily — and they make points. The most prominent of Feingold's observations is the effect of liberalism and secularization on American Jews.Less
A review of the book, Lest Memory Cease: Finding Meaning in the American Jewish Past by Henry L. Feingold is presented. The book presents Feingold's collected articles, some of which originated as lectures to Jewish organizations, and others that appeared mainly in the labor Zionist magazine, Jewish Frontier. One of Feingold's virtues, present here, is a skillful analysis of the contemporary American Jewish scene. He draws historical parallels with restraint, his articles and lectures are fluent and read easily — and they make points. The most prominent of Feingold's observations is the effect of liberalism and secularization on American Jews.
Damian Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195178562
- eISBN:
- 9780199785070
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195178564.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter is divided into two sections. The first examines the wider lessons to be drawn from the study of millenarianism at Kensington Temple. The second section argues that although the Problem ...
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This chapter is divided into two sections. The first examines the wider lessons to be drawn from the study of millenarianism at Kensington Temple. The second section argues that although the Problem of the End has manifested itself throughout the history of millenarianism, it is becoming more acute. It concludes that secularization weakens millenarianism in a more direct way than it weakens other forms of religious consensus.Less
This chapter is divided into two sections. The first examines the wider lessons to be drawn from the study of millenarianism at Kensington Temple. The second section argues that although the Problem of the End has manifested itself throughout the history of millenarianism, it is becoming more acute. It concludes that secularization weakens millenarianism in a more direct way than it weakens other forms of religious consensus.
Oddbjørn Knutsen and Staffan Kumlin
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199273218
- eISBN:
- 9780191602962
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199273219.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
The general hypothesis of the book is that the power of long-term factors to explain party choice has gradually become weaker. Since value orientations can be considered as long-term factors, one ...
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The general hypothesis of the book is that the power of long-term factors to explain party choice has gradually become weaker. Since value orientations can be considered as long-term factors, one should expect the explanatory power of value orientations to decline over time. However, the empirical evidence in this chapter suggests that the impact of values is regulated by the political context. This contextual factor includes the extent to which citizens learn to make use of ideological labels and concepts, the extent to which they receive ideological cues in order to choose on the basis of values, as well as the affective strength with which values are endorsed. The apparent decrease in perceived party polarisation in the 1990s led to a decline of the extent to which extremely economic left-right values matter for party choice.Less
The general hypothesis of the book is that the power of long-term factors to explain party choice has gradually become weaker. Since value orientations can be considered as long-term factors, one should expect the explanatory power of value orientations to decline over time. However, the empirical evidence in this chapter suggests that the impact of values is regulated by the political context. This contextual factor includes the extent to which citizens learn to make use of ideological labels and concepts, the extent to which they receive ideological cues in order to choose on the basis of values, as well as the affective strength with which values are endorsed. The apparent decrease in perceived party polarisation in the 1990s led to a decline of the extent to which extremely economic left-right values matter for party choice.
Nancy T. Ammerman
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195305418
- eISBN:
- 9780199785094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305418.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Having explored the dispatches from the field in the chapters of this book, it is apparent that there is no one summary measure of secularization or of religious strength. Existing traditions are by ...
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Having explored the dispatches from the field in the chapters of this book, it is apparent that there is no one summary measure of secularization or of religious strength. Existing traditions are by no means the only elements in people’s religious repertoire, but they are still a powerful presence, with an impact beyond what can be counted by asking individuals about their beliefs. An adequate social theory of religion will require that we look for the everyday intersections among the social domains of modern life — including religious domains — and for the ways plural cultural patterns affect each other. Paying attention to how modern people identify the religious and spiritual dimensions of their lives will continue to stretch our definitions, but it will also continue to suggest new ways to think about where religion is found and why, how spiritual practices affect lives, and how the particular histories of the world’s diverse societies shape the story of religion’s presence and role. There are indeed many modernities — not just the Western Enlightenment story of religious decline. And there are many kinds of choices — not just the rational maximizing of rewards. Everyday religion takes place in the fascinating flow of choosing and creating that constitutes modern social life.Less
Having explored the dispatches from the field in the chapters of this book, it is apparent that there is no one summary measure of secularization or of religious strength. Existing traditions are by no means the only elements in people’s religious repertoire, but they are still a powerful presence, with an impact beyond what can be counted by asking individuals about their beliefs. An adequate social theory of religion will require that we look for the everyday intersections among the social domains of modern life — including religious domains — and for the ways plural cultural patterns affect each other. Paying attention to how modern people identify the religious and spiritual dimensions of their lives will continue to stretch our definitions, but it will also continue to suggest new ways to think about where religion is found and why, how spiritual practices affect lives, and how the particular histories of the world’s diverse societies shape the story of religion’s presence and role. There are indeed many modernities — not just the Western Enlightenment story of religious decline. And there are many kinds of choices — not just the rational maximizing of rewards. Everyday religion takes place in the fascinating flow of choosing and creating that constitutes modern social life.
Kaspar Von Greyerz and Thomas Dunlap
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195327656
- eISBN:
- 9780199851478
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327656.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The world of early modern religiosity in the second half of the eighteenth century described in this book experienced a profound transformation that made it forever a part of history. The ...
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The world of early modern religiosity in the second half of the eighteenth century described in this book experienced a profound transformation that made it forever a part of history. The repercussions of the French revolution accelerated the transformation in western and central Europe, and in Italy. The mass religiosity of the nineteenth century played its part in ensuring that confessional stereotypes of judgment and behavior persisted into the second half of the twentieth century. New religious movements outside the churches have provided further proof that secularization in the modern world by no means led to the final disappearance of religious meaning and religious constructs in individual and collective life in the 1980s and 1990s.Less
The world of early modern religiosity in the second half of the eighteenth century described in this book experienced a profound transformation that made it forever a part of history. The repercussions of the French revolution accelerated the transformation in western and central Europe, and in Italy. The mass religiosity of the nineteenth century played its part in ensuring that confessional stereotypes of judgment and behavior persisted into the second half of the twentieth century. New religious movements outside the churches have provided further proof that secularization in the modern world by no means led to the final disappearance of religious meaning and religious constructs in individual and collective life in the 1980s and 1990s.
Joshua Yates
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195342536
- eISBN:
- 9780199867042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342536.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines leading figures and institutions of the Religious Right in the United States and the distinctive narrative form its public and political activism has taken from the fall of the ...
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This chapter examines leading figures and institutions of the Religious Right in the United States and the distinctive narrative form its public and political activism has taken from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present: namely, the jeremiad. The resurgence of publicly assertive religion has become the subject of intense scholarly scrutiny and the source of much political concern. Social scientists and policymakers have long presumed that as the world modernized it would inevitably secularize. The political ascendancy of the Religious Right in the United States and, more recently, the consequential militancy of radical Islamism confounds conventional wisdom of inevitable secularization. The chapter closes with a cursory comparison of the jeremiad with the jihad, the distinctive narrative form of radical Islamism, which reveals that despite strong rhetorical similarities between them, crucial differences persist in their political effects. Moreover, such a comparison reveals an important irony: just as the specter of resurgent religion has been undermining the longstanding academic confidence in the self‐evident inevitability of secularization, the perceived threat of secularization has been busy mobilizing the faithful both at home and abroad.Less
This chapter examines leading figures and institutions of the Religious Right in the United States and the distinctive narrative form its public and political activism has taken from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present: namely, the jeremiad. The resurgence of publicly assertive religion has become the subject of intense scholarly scrutiny and the source of much political concern. Social scientists and policymakers have long presumed that as the world modernized it would inevitably secularize. The political ascendancy of the Religious Right in the United States and, more recently, the consequential militancy of radical Islamism confounds conventional wisdom of inevitable secularization. The chapter closes with a cursory comparison of the jeremiad with the jihad, the distinctive narrative form of radical Islamism, which reveals that despite strong rhetorical similarities between them, crucial differences persist in their political effects. Moreover, such a comparison reveals an important irony: just as the specter of resurgent religion has been undermining the longstanding academic confidence in the self‐evident inevitability of secularization, the perceived threat of secularization has been busy mobilizing the faithful both at home and abroad.
Lorne L. Dawson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195177299
- eISBN:
- 9780199785537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177299.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
While the number of people involved in new religious movements (NRMs) is small, the attention they have received in the popular media and academic discourse suggest a greater significance. In the ...
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While the number of people involved in new religious movements (NRMs) is small, the attention they have received in the popular media and academic discourse suggest a greater significance. In the popular media, NRMs are most often seen as a social problem. In academic studies, they are more often associated with processes of social change and the critique of modernity. In the literature, there are four interpretive frameworks for understanding the significance of NRMs when viewed as a response to the social conditions of modernity. The first sees them as part of the protest against modernity. The second sees them as forums for modern social experimentation. The third identifies them with the re-enchantment of the modern world. The fourth suggests they are born of attempts to adapt to the social and psychological tensions created by a dialectic of trust and risk in late modern societies.Less
While the number of people involved in new religious movements (NRMs) is small, the attention they have received in the popular media and academic discourse suggest a greater significance. In the popular media, NRMs are most often seen as a social problem. In academic studies, they are more often associated with processes of social change and the critique of modernity. In the literature, there are four interpretive frameworks for understanding the significance of NRMs when viewed as a response to the social conditions of modernity. The first sees them as part of the protest against modernity. The second sees them as forums for modern social experimentation. The third identifies them with the re-enchantment of the modern world. The fourth suggests they are born of attempts to adapt to the social and psychological tensions created by a dialectic of trust and risk in late modern societies.
Harvey Cox
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691158853
- eISBN:
- 9781400848850
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691158853.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter illustrates the rich variety of the secularization process, looking at four cities representing four distinctive regions. These cities include New Delhi, Rome, Prague, and Boston. They ...
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This chapter illustrates the rich variety of the secularization process, looking at four cities representing four distinctive regions. These cities include New Delhi, Rome, Prague, and Boston. They represent the march of secularization and urbanization in, respectively, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the United States. Each of the four has felt the pressure of secularization differently, in part because of their diverse histories. The careers of these cities prove that the emergence of a world-wide urban civilization need not obliterate the distinctive coloration of particular cities or erase the uniqueness of their character. The chapter also demonstrates an important distinction made in an earlier chapter—the difference between secularization as a historical movement and secularism as ideology.Less
This chapter illustrates the rich variety of the secularization process, looking at four cities representing four distinctive regions. These cities include New Delhi, Rome, Prague, and Boston. They represent the march of secularization and urbanization in, respectively, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the United States. Each of the four has felt the pressure of secularization differently, in part because of their diverse histories. The careers of these cities prove that the emergence of a world-wide urban civilization need not obliterate the distinctive coloration of particular cities or erase the uniqueness of their character. The chapter also demonstrates an important distinction made in an earlier chapter—the difference between secularization as a historical movement and secularism as ideology.
Wolfgang Jagodzinski and Karel Dobbelaere
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294757
- eISBN:
- 9780191599040
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294751.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter investigates statistical evidence regarding the fall‐off in church membership and attendance, which has taken place across Western Europe since World War II, and analyses variations ...
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This chapter investigates statistical evidence regarding the fall‐off in church membership and attendance, which has taken place across Western Europe since World War II, and analyses variations between countries. It tentatively concludes that the pace of the process of church disengagement is linked to rationalization of society and the advance of Protestantism, which has led to a relegation of religion as an à la carte set of options, weakening its traditional guidelines on political questions. With religiously inspired deference fading away, political leaders may have more difficulty mustering support for the institutions of government.Less
This chapter investigates statistical evidence regarding the fall‐off in church membership and attendance, which has taken place across Western Europe since World War II, and analyses variations between countries. It tentatively concludes that the pace of the process of church disengagement is linked to rationalization of society and the advance of Protestantism, which has led to a relegation of religion as an à la carte set of options, weakening its traditional guidelines on political questions. With religiously inspired deference fading away, political leaders may have more difficulty mustering support for the institutions of government.
Karel Dobbelaere and Wolfgang Jagodzinski
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294757
- eISBN:
- 9780191599040
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294751.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter assesses the variances of socio‐political impact across Western European societies of the religious secularization effected by cultural rationalization, with particular regard to ...
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This chapter assesses the variances of socio‐political impact across Western European societies of the religious secularization effected by cultural rationalization, with particular regard to education and gender. The evidence indicates that the impact is more nuanced than trends in the behavioural component (the incidence of church‐going discussed in Ch. 4) would suggest.Less
This chapter assesses the variances of socio‐political impact across Western European societies of the religious secularization effected by cultural rationalization, with particular regard to education and gender. The evidence indicates that the impact is more nuanced than trends in the behavioural component (the incidence of church‐going discussed in Ch. 4) would suggest.
Timothy Samuel Shah, Alfred Stepan, and Monica Duffy Toft (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199827978
- eISBN:
- 9780199933020
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199827978.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In recent years, the importance of religion in the study and conduct of international affairs has come precipitously into view. This book seeks both to interrogate the problematic neglect of religion ...
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In recent years, the importance of religion in the study and conduct of international affairs has come precipitously into view. This book seeks both to interrogate the problematic neglect of religion in extant scholarship and to take the first steps towards its rectification. Drawing on the work of leading scholars across many disciplines as well as policy makers and analysts, this books aims to form an authoritative guide to the interconnections of religion and global politics. The chapters aim to convey a sense for the big puzzles, issues, and questions in six major areas. Chapters critically revisit the “secularization thesis,” which proclaimed the steady erosion of religion's public presence as an effect of modernization; explore the relationship between religion, democracy, and the juridico-political discourse of human rights; assess the role of religion in fomenting, ameliorating, and redressing violent conflict; and consider the value of religious beliefs, actors, and institutions to the delivery of humanitarian aid and the fostering of socio-economic development. Later chapters address the representation of religion in the burgeoning global media landscape and the unique place of religion in American foreign policy and the dilemmas that it presents.Less
In recent years, the importance of religion in the study and conduct of international affairs has come precipitously into view. This book seeks both to interrogate the problematic neglect of religion in extant scholarship and to take the first steps towards its rectification. Drawing on the work of leading scholars across many disciplines as well as policy makers and analysts, this books aims to form an authoritative guide to the interconnections of religion and global politics. The chapters aim to convey a sense for the big puzzles, issues, and questions in six major areas. Chapters critically revisit the “secularization thesis,” which proclaimed the steady erosion of religion's public presence as an effect of modernization; explore the relationship between religion, democracy, and the juridico-political discourse of human rights; assess the role of religion in fomenting, ameliorating, and redressing violent conflict; and consider the value of religious beliefs, actors, and institutions to the delivery of humanitarian aid and the fostering of socio-economic development. Later chapters address the representation of religion in the burgeoning global media landscape and the unique place of religion in American foreign policy and the dilemmas that it presents.
Kristine Kalanges
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199859467
- eISBN:
- 9780199933518
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199859467.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Comparative Law
This introductory chapter discusses first, the relationship between religious liberty and human rights; and second, the global resurgence of religion and its significance for contemporary ...
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This introductory chapter discusses first, the relationship between religious liberty and human rights; and second, the global resurgence of religion and its significance for contemporary international law and politics. Religious liberty rights merit special attention in part because they are closely correlated with the observance of other human rights. This connection assumes even greater significance in view of the second point, namely, that the world is experiencing a religious resurgence with profound implications for contemporary international relations. To be more precise, it is not so much that greater numbers of people are religious but rather that their religiosity has acquired new theoretical and empirical salience for international law and politics.Less
This introductory chapter discusses first, the relationship between religious liberty and human rights; and second, the global resurgence of religion and its significance for contemporary international law and politics. Religious liberty rights merit special attention in part because they are closely correlated with the observance of other human rights. This connection assumes even greater significance in view of the second point, namely, that the world is experiencing a religious resurgence with profound implications for contemporary international relations. To be more precise, it is not so much that greater numbers of people are religious but rather that their religiosity has acquired new theoretical and empirical salience for international law and politics.
Steven Green
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195399677
- eISBN:
- 9780199777150
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195399677.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Religion and Society
The Second Disestablishment: Church and State in Nineteenth-Century America is a history of the development of church-state law during what may be called the “forgotten century.” ...
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The Second Disestablishment: Church and State in Nineteenth-Century America is a history of the development of church-state law during what may be called the “forgotten century.” Traditional accounts of church and state commonly discuss the events surrounding the drafting of the First Amendment to the Constitution and then shift to the modern era of church-state relations, which began with the involvement of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1940s and incorporation of the Bill of Rights. The events that connect the first disestablishment with twentieth-century incorporation have been little studied or understood. The Second Disestablishment fills this gap by describing the dynamic events of the nineteenth century that affected church-state relationships: the rise of evangelical Protestantism to cultural dominance through moral reform societies; the enforcement of sumptuary laws through a maxim that Christianity formed part of the law; the gradual secularization of the law through the adoption of alternative theories; the challenges of an increasing religious pluralism; and the transformation of a Protestant-oriented public education system. The book examines the competing ideologies represented by evangelical Protestants who sought to create a “Christian nation” and other citizens who advocated broader notions of the separation of church and state. The Second Disestablishment demonstrates that, during the nineteenth century, a gradual transformation occurred in legal and popular attitudes toward church-state matters, leading to broader understandings of disestablishment and laying the foundation for modern Supreme Court jurisprudence.Less
The Second Disestablishment: Church and State in Nineteenth-Century America is a history of the development of church-state law during what may be called the “forgotten century.” Traditional accounts of church and state commonly discuss the events surrounding the drafting of the First Amendment to the Constitution and then shift to the modern era of church-state relations, which began with the involvement of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1940s and incorporation of the Bill of Rights. The events that connect the first disestablishment with twentieth-century incorporation have been little studied or understood. The Second Disestablishment fills this gap by describing the dynamic events of the nineteenth century that affected church-state relationships: the rise of evangelical Protestantism to cultural dominance through moral reform societies; the enforcement of sumptuary laws through a maxim that Christianity formed part of the law; the gradual secularization of the law through the adoption of alternative theories; the challenges of an increasing religious pluralism; and the transformation of a Protestant-oriented public education system. The book examines the competing ideologies represented by evangelical Protestants who sought to create a “Christian nation” and other citizens who advocated broader notions of the separation of church and state. The Second Disestablishment demonstrates that, during the nineteenth century, a gradual transformation occurred in legal and popular attitudes toward church-state matters, leading to broader understandings of disestablishment and laying the foundation for modern Supreme Court jurisprudence.
Charles T Mathewes and Christopher McKnight Nichols (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195342536
- eISBN:
- 9780199867042
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342536.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book explores the surprisingly similar expectations of religious and moral change voiced by major American thinkers from the time of the Puritans to modern times. These predictions of ...
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This book explores the surprisingly similar expectations of religious and moral change voiced by major American thinkers from the time of the Puritans to modern times. These predictions of “godlessness” in American society — sometimes by those favoring the foreseen future, sometimes by those fearing it — have a history as old as America, and indeed seem crucially intertwined with it. This book shows that there have been and continue to be patterns to these prophesies. They determine how some people perceive and analyze America's prospective moral and religious future, how they express themselves, and powerfully affect how others hear them. While these patterns have taken a sinuous and at times subterranean route to the present, when we think about the future of America we are thinking about that future largely with terms and expectations first laid out by past generations, some stemming back before the very foundations of the United States. Even contemporary atheists and those who predict optimistic techno-utopias rely on scripts that are deeply rooted in the American past. This book excavates the history of these prophesies. Each chapter attends to a particular era, and each is organized around a focal individual, a community of thought, and changing conceptions of secularization. Each chapter also discusses how such predictions are part of all thought about “the good society,” and how such thinking structures our apprehension of the present, forming a feedback loop of sorts.Less
This book explores the surprisingly similar expectations of religious and moral change voiced by major American thinkers from the time of the Puritans to modern times. These predictions of “godlessness” in American society — sometimes by those favoring the foreseen future, sometimes by those fearing it — have a history as old as America, and indeed seem crucially intertwined with it. This book shows that there have been and continue to be patterns to these prophesies. They determine how some people perceive and analyze America's prospective moral and religious future, how they express themselves, and powerfully affect how others hear them. While these patterns have taken a sinuous and at times subterranean route to the present, when we think about the future of America we are thinking about that future largely with terms and expectations first laid out by past generations, some stemming back before the very foundations of the United States. Even contemporary atheists and those who predict optimistic techno-utopias rely on scripts that are deeply rooted in the American past. This book excavates the history of these prophesies. Each chapter attends to a particular era, and each is organized around a focal individual, a community of thought, and changing conceptions of secularization. Each chapter also discusses how such predictions are part of all thought about “the good society,” and how such thinking structures our apprehension of the present, forming a feedback loop of sorts.
Gerard F. Powers
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195395914
- eISBN:
- 9780199776801
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395914.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The prevailing secularist paradigm and quantitative analyses of the relationship between religion, conflict, and peace are inadequate. Powers calls for moving beyond a functionalist approach to the ...
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The prevailing secularist paradigm and quantitative analyses of the relationship between religion, conflict, and peace are inadequate. Powers calls for moving beyond a functionalist approach to the roles of religion in promoting conflict or peace to a fuller appreciation of the complexity of religion and the unique spiritual and religious resources available for peacebuilding. Citing illustrative examples from around the world, he highlights the pressing need for a multi-layered analysis of complex religious strategies for peacebuilding. The chapter explores three critical dimensions of a strategic approach to religious peacebuilding: the public role of religion, religion’s relationship to nonviolence and the just war tradition, and the potential and limits of ecumenical and interreligious peacebuilding.Less
The prevailing secularist paradigm and quantitative analyses of the relationship between religion, conflict, and peace are inadequate. Powers calls for moving beyond a functionalist approach to the roles of religion in promoting conflict or peace to a fuller appreciation of the complexity of religion and the unique spiritual and religious resources available for peacebuilding. Citing illustrative examples from around the world, he highlights the pressing need for a multi-layered analysis of complex religious strategies for peacebuilding. The chapter explores three critical dimensions of a strategic approach to religious peacebuilding: the public role of religion, religion’s relationship to nonviolence and the just war tradition, and the potential and limits of ecumenical and interreligious peacebuilding.
David Ciepley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195342536
- eISBN:
- 9780199867042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342536.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In the United States, in contrast to continental Europe, science and social reform maintained generally positive relations with organized Christianity into the twentieth century. After World War Two, ...
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In the United States, in contrast to continental Europe, science and social reform maintained generally positive relations with organized Christianity into the twentieth century. After World War Two, however, American social scientists frowned on religion's public role and embraced secularization theory despite its conceptual and empirical shortcomings. More important than the influx of European émigrés in effecting this shift was the reinterpretation of American democracy by native‐born social scientists. Under assault from Catholic intellectuals for their “moral relativism,” social scientists turned the tables, arguing that totalitarianism was the child of Catholic‐style moral absolutism, while democracy flowed from moral openness and skepticism. They buried the covenantal conception of America as a moral project and reinterpreted it as a regime of neutral process. Modernization‐secularization theory, as developed in the United States, projected this procedural, “secular Enlightenment” image of America onto the world stage, casting it as the telos of history.Less
In the United States, in contrast to continental Europe, science and social reform maintained generally positive relations with organized Christianity into the twentieth century. After World War Two, however, American social scientists frowned on religion's public role and embraced secularization theory despite its conceptual and empirical shortcomings. More important than the influx of European émigrés in effecting this shift was the reinterpretation of American democracy by native‐born social scientists. Under assault from Catholic intellectuals for their “moral relativism,” social scientists turned the tables, arguing that totalitarianism was the child of Catholic‐style moral absolutism, while democracy flowed from moral openness and skepticism. They buried the covenantal conception of America as a moral project and reinterpreted it as a regime of neutral process. Modernization‐secularization theory, as developed in the United States, projected this procedural, “secular Enlightenment” image of America onto the world stage, casting it as the telos of history.
