Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion. By Rodney Stark and Roger Finke. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 343 pp. $48.00 (cloth); $18.95 (paper). At a recent American Academy of Religion meeting, after a brilliant paper was presented on God and religious experience, the speaker was asked this question by an academic: "But how can you say these things in our postmodem, anti-enlightenment, pluralistic age?" Acts of Faith secures the thesis that not just talk about, but devout belief in, God is rational, widespread, and shows no sign of abating. For a vast number of well-educated, articulate human beings talk of God is not very difficult at all. Acts of Faith is an important treatment of the sociology of religious belief and should be considered required reading by anyone interested in the social standing and assessment of religion. It overturns the conventions of a great deal of earlier sociological inquiry into religion and stands as a model of clarity and rigor. Rodney Stark and Roger Finke begin by documenting the social and intellectual history of atheism, noting how history, sociology, and psychoanalysis have been employed to exhibit the irrationality of religious belief. They underscore how many of these projects have done little more than presup- pose the credulous nature of religion. There is something darkly humorous about the many techniques employed by "intellectuals" and social scientists to explain why religion persists and even grows amidst "modernity." Stark and Finke's analysis is devastating. From the outset through to the last chapter the writing is crisp and at times quite amusing. Here is a passage from the introduction, lamenting the fact that many sociologists focus their work on fringe religious groups: A coven of nine witches in Lund, Sweden, is far more apt to be the object of a case study than is, say, the Episcopal Church, with more than two million members. Some of this merely reflects that it is rather easier to get one's work published if the details are sufficiently lurid or if the group is previously undocumented. A recitation of Episcopalian theology and excerpts from the Book of Common Prayer will not arouse nearly the interest (prurient or otherwise) than can be generated by tales of blondes upon the altar and sexual contacts with animals (p. 19). Stark and Finke have written a text that abounds in technical case studies, while at the same time giving us a book that is a pleasure to read. The introduction and first three chapters alone are a tour de force. They expose the blatant inadequacy of sociological work that reads religious belief as pathology or flagrant irrationality. They challenge the thesis of impending, virtually inevitable secularization, for instance, in part by refuting the claim that in the distant past almost everyone was religious. …

Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) ; Research Council of Norway ; Nordic Africa Institute ; World Agroforestry Centre

Plague of bureaucracies : producing and territorializing difference in East Africa, 1888-1940

Cette recherche analyse la dimension sociale de la mobilite pour etudes des Maliens en France et au Maroc. Face a un systeme d'enseignement superieur a l'offre pedagogique et aux capacites d'accueil limitees, nombre d'etudiants maliens voient en la mobilite une echappatoire. En outre, ceux qui partent perpetuent une pratique de formation a l'etranger consubstantielle a la formation des elites maliennes au XXe siecle. Des acteurs institutionnels facilitent la mobilite etudiante. L'Etat, d'une part, a travers les bourses de merite qu'il met en place, et par les nouveaux etablissements prives, au Maroc notamment, qui adaptent leur offre de formation a la demande provenant des pays d'Afrique subsaharienne. Nous questionnons la maniere dont la mobilite geographique participe d'une strategie de mobilite sociale, puis demontrons comment les inegalites du champ scolaire malien, fondees sur les disparites de capitaux economique, culturel et social, faconnent les inegalites d'acces a la mobilite. Toutefois, ces dernieres sont contournees par la mobilisation des « liens faibles », dont la parente elargie, par les etudiants socialement defavorises. Le role de ces reseaux apparait crucial dans la mobilite pour etudes, comme l'attestent les parcours des etudiants defavorises dont la reussite professionnelle et sociale est souvent comparable a celle des etudiants issus des elites politiques, economiques et religieuses. Les trajectoires d'insertion professionnelle des diplomes maliens de France et du Maroc mettent enfin en evidence le role cle de la mobilite internationale pour etudes superieures, en complement de la scolarite au Mali : gage d'un acces au statut d'elite, au Mali, pour le plus grand nombre, une telle mobilite internationale apparait comme un facteur de transformation des hierarchies sociales.

Mobilité internationale pour études et mobilité sociale : trajectoires scolaires et socioprofessionnelles des étudiants maliens dans l'enseignement supérieur en France et au Maroc

The formation of Marian devotion has been considered by many researchers, one of the most enigmatic objects of study of the History of Christianity, largely because of the sources available for understanding this event are plural and difficult to be concatenated. The documentary corpora we elect – images, epigraphic inscriptions, liturgical texts, chronicles, letters, homilies, doctrinal texts and conciliar texts – indicates, above all, the emergence of this piety was wrapped in a web of power relations woven by bishops, monks, authorities Imperial and devotees. Initially, the border Christianity was forged from the middle of the III century cooperated to a large extent, for the hybridization of some forms of worship, including the devotion to Mary, as we have seen, for example, the creation of Marian frescoes in the Catacombs of St. Priscilla. Although manifest initially in a dispersed manner, Marian piety will be domesticated by the ekklesia pari passu to its strengthening among filochristians groups, on account of the efforts of some church leaders of Alexandria, especially Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Athanasius – members the center of studies of Alexandria – who dedicated themselves to develop a theology grounded in the glorification of Mary. In the IV and V centuries, we noted, throughout the Empire, the spread of reserved devotional practices to Mary under the scope of personal and monastic piety, a fact that displeased largely, some episcopal authorities, especially those affiliated to school of Antioch. Therefore, in the year 431, it broke a major controversy in the Council of Ephesus concerning the defense of the use of titles Christótokos and Theotókos, both awarded to Mary. The event was set up around the political and cultural struggle undertaken by bishops Nestorius of Constantinople and Cyril of Alexandria, in which he fought for doctrinal, liturgical institutionalization of worship. Soon after the victory of Cyril and his supporters, an important building was erected: the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The project demonstrated that piety to Mary turned out to be not only safeguarded and institutionalized by the ekklesia, but also manipulated to serve as the emblem for the glorification of the power of the bishop of Rome.

http://portais4.ufes.br/posgrad/teses/tese_4680_Altino_Silveira_Silva.pdf

Universidade federal do espírito santo centro de ciências humanas e naturais programa de pós-graduação em história social das relações políticas

Conteste l’une des grandes priorites pour l’Etat et les organisations internationales. Derriere l’ecolepublique ou « ecole francaise », une offre educative « arabo-islamique » repond aux demandes socialeset religieuses des parents senegalais. Les ecoles coraniques communement appelees daara, ecolesfranco-arabes ou Instituts islamiques, sont autant de denominations faisant reference a ces institutionsd’education islamiques et de langue arabe, dont l’objectif premier repose sur la memorisation du Coranet la transmission du message islamique.Cette recherche a pour ambition de suivre la trajectoire de la politique educative de l’education arabo -islamique, en scrutant ses premieres formulations des l’epoque coloniale (1857-1940), sesambivalences au cours de la formation de l’Etat senegalais postcolonial (1950-1980) et en decrivant aucours des annees 1990 le passage d’une politique de l’action sociale a son institutionnalisation dans lesecteur educatif au debut des annees 2000. Ces ecoles font l’objet de debats souvent animes, deconflits entre acteurs de divers horizons publiques ou prives et de reformes abouties ou avortees.L’autorite publique doit en effet composer avec une multiplicite d’acteurs (religieux, internationaux ,associatifs, etc.), qui influencent et interagissent au sein d’un processus de negociation.Etudier la construction de cette politique publique d’education a travers la structuration d’un secteur,les revendications des uns, les actions ou « non-actions des autres », nous amene a reveler certainesdes transformations de la societe senegalaise et de son rapport a l’Etat. Et plus globalement, a nousinterroger sur le modele classique du rapport entre le politique et le religieux.

(Re)penser Dieu à l'école au Sénégal : les politiques publiques face à l'éducation "arabo-islamique"

Cahiers de la recherche sur l'education et les savoirs Sujet : Les Cahiers de la recherche sur l'education et les savoirs ont pour ambition de confronter les travaux menes sur les pays ou les systemes d'education ont une profondeur historique certaine, et sur ceux ou ils n'ont ete introduits que plus recemment. Ils se donnent aussi pour objectifs de decloisonner les disciplines et de favoriser un echange entre diverses approches, afin de renouveler les perspectives methodologiques et theo...

La recherche sur l'éducation et les savoirs

Recerca - Revista de pensament i analisi Sujet : La revista Recerca es una publicacion anual, realizada desde el Departamento de Filosofia y Sociologia de la Universitat Jaume I de Castellon, que aborda desde una perspectiva filosofica y sociologica critica las principales tematicas que actualmente se estan abordando en la comunidad academica. Cada numero de Recerca aborda una tematica concreta con la colaboracion de destacados investigadores del panorama nacional e internacional. Onli...

Recerca : Revista de pensament i anàlisi

Fenix - Revista de Historia e Estudos Culturais Sujet : O site entrou no ar em dezembro de 2004 com o objetivo de trazer ao publico leitor uma publicacao que se caracterizasse pela agilidade, universalidade e gratuidade. Essa preocupacao, porem, nao encerrava as expectativas depositadas na sua criacao. Pelo contrario, o grande proposito era tornar acessivel uma publicacao capaz de incentivar a interlocucao academica e a ampla divulgacao de pesquisas instigantes e de alto nivel, procurand...

Fênix - Revista de História e Estudos Culturais

Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review Sujet : RACAR is a scholarly bilingual journal published by the Universities Art Association of Canada As the only general art history journal in Canada, RACAR's scope reflects the range and diversity of art-historical practices across the country Contributors include art historians, curators, and independent scholars International submissions are encouraged Online ISSN : 1981-4778 Print ISSN : 0315-9906 Langue : Anglais, Francais 

Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review

Anais do Seminario de Historia da Cidade e do Urbanismo Sujet : Ao completar 20 anos de realizacoes, desde 1990, o Seminario de Historia da Cidade e do Urbanismo ja reuniu perto de mil trabalhos nas diversas modalidades de divulgacao em suas dez versoes anteriores. Esse quantitativo nao apenas representa um crescimento na troca de experiencias entre pesquisadores, mas, sobretudo, um enriquecimento e evolucao de estudos relacionados com essa tematica, e com sua diversificacao em termos dis...

Dominique Poggi

Papers

La recherche sur l'éducation et les savoirs

Recerca : Revista de pensament i anàlisi

Fênix - Revista de História e Estudos Culturais

Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review

História da Cidade e do Urbanismo