1. Introduction: Religions and Development: A New Agenda 2. Approaches to the Theory and Practice of Development: From 'Estrangement' to 'Engagement' with Religions 3. Concepts and Theories for Studying Religions Globally 4. Religious Approaches to Development 5. Human Rights, Religions and Development 6. Gender, Religions and Development 7. Environmentalism, Religions and Development 8. Researching and Understanding the Role of 'Faith-based Organizations' (FBOs) in Development 9. Conclusion: Religions and International Development in the 21st Century

Religions and Development

DURING the Tourth annual conference of the Rationalist press Association, heald at Magdalen College, Oxford during August 5-9, the main theme for discussion was "Science and Society". In his presidential address, which opened the proceedings Prof. A. E. Health (University College, Swansea) dealt with scientific method, as applied to the social field. Referring to the opinion held in some quarters that as soon as we enter the domain of social and political affairs something other than normal scientific procedure is called for, he asserted that science is only common-sense reflexion more critically and more consistently applied, and that any field of human experience can become a science. What makes a study scientific is not the nature of the things it deals with but the way it deals with them. The first step in scientific method is the critical observation of any given body of facts, and the second is the setting out of these facts in some sort of scientific order ; then that order is tested and we are led to new facts which in turn have to be ordered, and so on in an endless series. In saying that reflexion upon facts becomes scientific by becoming more critical and systematic, we must not suppose that the change was an easy one ; it involved centuries of human struggle. Resistance to scientific treatment was particularly strong in human and social studies because we lack the courage to be critical in matters which come too closely home to our frail human nature. This perpetual struggle to put statements about our experience in testable form is not, however, the end of the story. In the less mature sciences there may still be alternative modes of ordering the facts. Social studies are still at the stage when there are many divergent possible modes of dealing with the same body of facts concerning human behaviour. To pass from J. B. Watson to Freud, or from Jung to Adler, is like moving into different worlds ; yet all these psychologists dealt with the same human facts, however different the terms they employed to interpret them and throw them into fruitful combinations. Our trouble in applying scientific method to the social sciences would be overcome if we could realize that novelty is a directly observable fact in the development of men and society. The theory of evolution is a critical step in our methods of thinking because it involves a recognition of novelty in science : if we are to master and direct our world, we must learn how to cope not only with the orderly but also with the novel aspects of the universe, even when that novelty is of our own making. Scientific method can be applied by taking into account the pliancy of life, thus achieving some measure of control out of the very heart of the unexpected and incalculable.

Impact of Science on Society

Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment

Christian Democratic actors and thinkers have been at the forefront of many of the twentieth century's key political battles - from the construction of the international human rights regime, through the process of European integration and the creation of postwar welfare regimes, to Latin American development policies during the Cold War. Yet their core ideas remain largely unknown, especially in the English-speaking world. Combining conceptual and historical approaches, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti traces the development of this ideology in the thought and writings of some of its key intellectual and political exponents, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. In so doing he sheds light on a number of important contemporary issues, from the question of the appropriate place of religion in presumptively 'secular' liberal-democratic regimes, to the normative resources available for building a political response to the recent rise of far-right populism.

What is Christian Democracy?: Politics, Religion and Ideology

discourses on secularism and assimilation. Jansen argues that the perspective of assimilating distinct ethno-religious minorities by incorporating them into a secular and supposedly neutral public sphere can generate and perpetuate the very distinctions it is meant to overcome. To flesh out this insight she borrows from the literature on the paradoxes of assimilation as experienced by the French Jews in the late 19th century, through a contextualised reading of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Jansen offers a dynamic, critical multiculturalism as an alternative to discourses focusing on secularism, assimilation and integration.

Secularism, Assimilation and the Crisis of Multiculturalism: French Modernist Legacies

Na de dramatische gebeurtenissen van 11 september 2001 zijn het vooral de fundamentalistische stromingen die de boventoon voeren in de meeste overzichten van het islamitisch denken. Extremisten en fundamentalisten hebben een veel prominentere plaats gekregen dan ze ooit hadden durven dromen. In Reformation of Islamic Thought onderzoekt de gerenommeerde Egyptische geleerde Nasr Abu Zayd de positieve, liberale en inclusieve bijdragen van moslimdenkers. Hij neemt de lezer mee op een kritische reis door de moslimwereld, waar moslimdenkers van Egypte en Iran tot Indonesie proberen de islam te ontdoen van traditionalistische en legalistische interpretaties. Daartegenover benadrukken ze de waarde van een culturele, verlichte Islam en een individualistisch geloof. Velen beschouwen de dogmatische islam van de conservatieven, die vaak wordt gesteund door totalitaire politieke regeringen, als volstrekt achterhaald; ze willen die interpretaties vervangen door een spirituele en ethische islam. In hoeverre zijn deze hervormingsgezinde denkers betrokken bij een daadwerkelijke vernieuwing van het islamitisch denken? Slagen ze erin te ontsnappen aan de traditionalistische valkuil van een uitsluitend negatief beeld van het Westen?

Reformation of Islamic Thought: A Critical Historical Analysis

Preface Exiled My Early Years Badriyya, Karima, Ayat, and Shereen A Reluctant Scholar Here I Stand My American Adventure Going Japanese Ebtehal My Teaching Journey A Decent Return The Nexus of Theory and Practice Looking Ahead The Way Forward Appendix

Voice of an Exile: Reflections on Islam

Naqd Al-Khitab Al-Dini

Reformation of Islamic thought , Reformation of Islamic thought , کتابخانه دیجیتال و فن آوری اطلاعات دانشگاه امام صادق(ع)

Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd

Papers

Reformation of Islamic Thought: A Critical Historical Analysis

Voice of an Exile: Reflections on Islam

Naqd Al-Khitab Al-Dini

Reformation of Islamic thought

Critique of Religious Discourse