Religious traditions and communities of faith have gained a new, hitherto unexpected political importance since the epochmaking change of 1989–90. Needless to say, what initially spring to mind are the variants of religious fundamentalism that we face not only in the Middle East, but also in Africa, Southeast Asia, and in the Indian subcontinent. They often lock into national and ethnic conflicts, and today also form the seedbed for the decentralized form of terrorism that operates globally and is directed against the perceived insults and injuries caused by a superior Western civilization. There are other symptoms, too. For example, in Iran the protest against a corrupt regime set in place and supported by the West has given rise to a veritable rule of priests that serves other movements as a model to follow. In several Muslim countries, and in Israel as well, religious family law is either an alternative or a substitute for secular civil law. And in Afghanistan (and soon in Iraq), the application of a more or less liberal constitution must be limited by its compatibility with the Sharia. Likewise, religious conflicts are squeezing their way into the international arena. The hopes associated with the political agenda of multiple modernities are fueled by the cultural self-confidence of those world religions that to this very day unmistakably shape the physiognomy of the major civilizations. And on the Western side of the fence, the perception of international relations has changed in light of the fears of a ‘clash of civilizations’—‘the axis of evil’ is merely one prominent example of this. Even Western intellectuals, to date self-critical in this regard, are starting to go on the offensive in their response to the image of Occidentalism that the others have of the West. Fundamentalism in other corners of the earth can be construed, among other things, in terms of the long-term impact of violent colonization and failures in decolonization. Under unfavorable circumstances, capitalist modernization penetrating these societies from the outside then triggers social uncertainty and cultural upheavals. On this reading, religious movements process the radical changes in social structure and cultural dissynchronies, which under conditions of an accelerated or failing modernization the individual may experience as a sense of being uprooted. What is more surprising is the political revitalization of religion at the heart of the United States, where the dynamism of modernization unfolds most successfully. Certainly, in Europe ever since the days of the French Revolution we have been aware of the power of a religious form of traditionalism that saw itself as counter-revolutionary. However, this evocation of religion as the

Religion in the Public Sphere

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Delinking : The rhetoric of modernity, the logic of coloniality and the grammar of de-coloniality

‘Borders’ will be in the twenty-first century what ‘frontiers’ where in the nineteenth. Frontiers were conceived as the line indicating the last point in the relentless march of civilization. On the one side of the frontiers was civilization; on the other, nothing; just barbarism or emptiness. The march of civilization and the idea of the frontiers created a geographic and bodygraphic divide. Certain areas of the planet were designated as the location of the barbarians, and since the eighteenth century, of the primitives. In one stroke, bodies were classified and assigned a given place on the planet. But who had the authority to enact such a classification, and what was the logic of that classification? Furthermore, the classification of the world by region, and the link established between regions and people inhabiting them, was parallel to the march of civilization and companions of it: on the other side of the epistemic frontiers, people do not think or theorize; hence, one of the reasons they were con...

Theorizing from the Borders Shifting to Geo- and Body-Politics of Knowledge

A companion to Greek and Roman political thought

The traditional interpretation of "intrinsic" religiousness has fostered an unchallenged assumption that normative and substantive religious motivation is inherently individual and personal. Social motives for religiousness and structured practices have been characterized as "extrinsic" and as lacking in formative significance. We argue that this view is most applicable in American Protestant religions, and hence existing religious motivation scales reflect a distinctly American Protestant view. We then show that social motives and structured ritual practices are, in fact, as normative as individual motivations in several religious traditions. In particular, we describe the social practices and motives normative for Judaism and certain streams of Christianity. We then discuss the potential relevance of this analysis to emotion, collective identity, and moral judgment.

Social Versus Individual Motivation: Implications for Normative Definitions of Religious Orientation

Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason

Despite these critiques, C.’s book is a rich rumination on mystical themes of darkness that open imaginative horizons for wrestling with our personal losses and our sociopolitical realities. The range of mystical interlocutors and C.’s deft weaving of mystical voices with artists, intellectuals, and others engaged with ongoing struggles for justice make this work a fruitful read. It is a welcome addition for theologians who are seeking ways to bring the wisdom of the mystics to bear on the existential, political, and spiritual challenges of our time.

Book Review: Appel, Kurt (ed): In Praise of Mortality: Christianity and New Humanism

The intersection between religious experience and aesthetic experience has become so obvious that the current “aesthetic turn” in Christian theology no longer needs to be defended. In this essay, I discuss that intersection point from the point of view of Roman Catholicism, in order to demonstrate the bold claim that the arts and the performance they evoke from us are as important as the creed for Catholicism. The essay aims to do three things: first, to examine that intersection point and emphasize the elements of intentionality and desire; second, to analyze one expression of that intersection, namely the connection among Catholic faith claims, the visual arts, and Catholicism’s incarnational-sacramental imagination (using depictions of the post-Resurrection Emmaus story); third, to use hints from Hartmut Rosa’s recent work on “resonance” to tease out how revelation and transformation occur at this intersection.

Anthony J. Godzieba

Papers

Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason

Book Review: Appel, Kurt (ed): In Praise of Mortality: Christianity and New Humanism

Five Looks at Emmaus: Revelation, Resonance, and the Sacramental Imagination