Showing papers on "Secularization published in 2008"

Periodization and Sovereignty: How Ideas of Feudalism and Secularization Govern the Politics of Time

Abstract: Introduction PART I. FEUDALISM 1. Sovereign Subjects, Feudal Law, and the Writing of History 2. Feudal Law and Colonial Property PART II. SECULARIZATION 3. The Sense of an Epoch: Secularization, Sovereign Futures, and the "Middle Ages" 4. A Political Theology of Time: The Venerable Bede and Amitav Ghosh Epilogue Notes Works Cited Index Acknowledgments

A World Survey of Religion and the State

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The question of religion's role in politics and society: modernization, secularization, and beyond? 3. Quantifying religion 4. Global GIR from 1990 to 2002 5. Western democracies 6. The former Soviet bloc 7. Asia 8. The Middle East and North Africa 9. Sub-Saharan Africa 10. Latin America 11. Patterns and trends 12. Conclusions.

Religion and Science: Beyond the Epistemological Conflict Narrative

Abstract: Studies of the relationship between religion and science have traditionally assumed that any conflict that exists is based on epistemology. This assumption is built into the history of Western academic thought, the founding of sociology itself, as well as the common definitions of religion used by social scientists. This assumption has hindered the examination of the relationship between religion and science. We categorize studies of the relationship between science and religion into three groups: the symbolic epistemological conflict studies, the symbolic directional influence studies, and the social-institutional studies. We find that the social-institutional studies, which most closely examine actual public conflicts, do not presume that the conflict is over epistemological claims and offer a more general and fruitful approach to examining the relationship between religion and science.

Conjugating the Modern/Religious, Conceptualizing Female Religious Agency: Contours of a 'Post-secular' Conjuncture

Abstract: This article is concerned with thinking transformations of the secular, and does so in relation to two theoretical terrains, while empirically grounded in ethnographies of Christian and Islamic pious women in the Netherlands. A first theoretical terrain under consideration is that of how the relation between modernity and religion is elaborated, notably in secularization theories, and how these established frameworks are challenged by a different kind of articulation between modernity and religion that I observed in narratives and practices of young Evangelical and Islamic women in the Netherlands. The article traces the contours of a `pious modern', showing how from a faith-centred perspective the modern can be incorporated and indeed produced. In this context, I argue that the way in which notions of modernization and secularization have been theoretically hinged on each other needs to be further revisited, and I propose to consider the `post-secular' as a new disarticulation between the modern and the ...

Gendering secularization theory.

Abstract: The author argues that our understanding of secularization can be greatly enhanced by taking gender differences seriously. Whilst existing theories of secularization do a good job of explaining why men disaffiliated from Christianity after the onset of industrialization, they ignore the experience of women-whose experience of modernization was significantly different. Whilst men have been responsible for paid work outside the home, women have been engaged in unpaid care work within the home. Their entrance into the paid labour force since the 1960s has not relieved them of traditional duties of care. It is suggested that we can best understand contemporary women's patterns of religious affiliation and disaffiliation in relation to their working lives, whether embracing domestic employment, or seeking a balance between both forms of labour.

Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation

Abstract: The long twentieth century in China and Taiwan has seen both a dramatic process of state-driven secularization and modernization and a vigorous revival of contemporary religious life. "Chinese Religiosities" explores the often vexed relationship between the modern Chinese state and religious practice. The essays in this comprehensive, multidisciplinary collection cover a wide range of traditions, including Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Confucianism, Protestantism, Falungong, popular religion, and redemptive societies. Contributors include: Jose Cabezon, Prasenjit Duara, Ryan Dunch, Dru C. Gladney, Vincent Goossaert, Ji Zhe, Ya-pei Kuo, Richard Madsen, Rebecca Nedostup, David Palmer, Benjamin Penny, and Mayfair Mei-hui Yang.

Faith-Based Organizations and International Development: An Overview

Abstract: Development studies has traditionally neglected the role of religion and faith and its role in the lives of the poor throughout the developing world. Like other social sciences, it was heavily influenced by ‘secularization theory’, the belief (in Wilson’s classic formulation) that ‘religious institutions, actions and consciousness lose their social significance’ over time as societies modernize (Wilson 1992: 49).1 This influence was evident in two key respects: in ‘secular reductionism’ — the neglect of religious variables in favour of other sociological attributes such as class, ethnicity and gender — and in ‘materialistic determinism’ — the neglect of nonmaterial, especially religious, motivations in explaining individual or institutional behaviour.2 In this vein, academics and policymakers perceived poverty as a matter of material deprivation and its elimination a technical undertaking; they systematically ignored the role of faith as an analytical lens through which the poor experienced and rationalized poverty and through which the well-off empathized with their struggles and provided practical support. Donors were not completely immune to variables such as the religious impulse to help the poor. In practice, however, they engaged with a narrow range of faith-based organizations, mainly specialized development organizations associated with the mainstream Christian Churches (Catholic and Protestant), ignoring discourses and organizations from other religious traditions.

The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization

Abstract: List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments 1 The Great Secularization Experiment 2 Dreams of Secularization 3 The Atheist Crusade 4 Shutting Off Religious Supply 5 Hunting for Religious Demand 6 After Atheism 7 The Social and Political Resilience of God Notes Bibliography Index

The Christian Democratic Phoenix and Modern Unsecular Politics

Abstract: Christian democracy is still posing theoretical problems of definition and empirical puzzles of classification and interpretation. Analyses based on secularization theory produce puzzles and anomalies and have little to offer as explanations for the variation in Christian democratic power mobilization. Empirically, this article focuses on Christian democracy in The Netherlands and offers an explanation of the party's decline in the 1990s and its remarkable recovery. From this, lessons are drawn for further theory-building on party and party system change, and on Christian democracy. It seems that modern Christian democratic politics is evolving as neither religious nor secular, but as a version of unsecular politics.

Secularization and Religious Change among Elite Scientists

Abstract: Sociologists of religion have often connected secularization to science, but have rarely examined the role of religion in the lives of scientists or how the sciences have changed religiously over time. Here we address this shortcoming by comparing religiosity between two samples of elite academic natural and social scientists, one in 1969 and one in 2005. Findings show an overall decline in religiosity among university scientists as well as a change in their religious composition. Attendance rates were lower for social scientists in 1969 compared to natural scientists, but in 2005 growing parity in attendance occurred between the two fields. Findings also show a decline in the proportion of Protestant scientists and a growth in Catholic scientists. Demographic factors associated with religiosity in the general population, with the exception of age and having children, had no impact among elite academic scientists. Overall, findings challenge and revise older studies on the role of religion in the lives of scientists. Specific results are connected to theories that pose science as a master identity, which may be mitigated by some institutionalized aspects of religion. They also lead to new directions in the sociology of religion that take seriously the role of religion in the lives of elites and connect societal religious changes to differences between institutional spheres, particularly those, such as the academy, that play a leadership role in society.

Women and Religion in the West: Challenging Secularization

Abstract: Contents: Introduction: women and secularization: one size does not fit all, Giselle Vincett, Sonya Sharma and Kristin Aune Part 1 Christianity: Religious change in the West: watch the women, Penny Long Marler Singleness and secularization: British evangelical women and church (dis)affiliation, Kristin Aune When young women say 'yes': exploring the sexual selves of young Canadian women in Protestant churches, Sonya Sharma Vocational habit(u)s: Catholic nuns in contemporary Poland, Marta Trzebiatowska. Part 2 Alternative Spiritualities: The spiritual revolution and the New Age gender puzzle: the sacralization of self in late modernity (1980a "2000), Dick Houtman and Stef Aupers The soul of soulless conditions: paganism, Goddess religion and witchcraft in Canada, SiA n Reid The fusers: new forms of spiritualized Christianity, Giselle Vincett 'Because I'm worth it': religion and women's changing lives in the West, Linda Woodhead. Part 3 Islam : Counting women with faith: what quantitative data can reveal about Muslim women in 'secular' Britain, Serena Hussain Real Islam in Kazan: reconfiguring the modern, knowledge and gender, Sarah Bracke Being Muslim and being Canadian: how 2nd generation Muslim women create religious identities in 2 worlds, Rubina Ramji Being seen by many eyes: Muslim immigrant women in the United States, Garbi Schmidt Afterword, Mary Jo Neitz Index.

Taming Islam: Studying Religion in Secular Turkey

Abstract: It is hard to overemphasize how politically sensitive religious education is in Turkish society. The debate over religious education, along with a few other touchstone issues, reveals much about how official conceptions of religion clash with the beliefs and practices of many religiously observant Turkish citizens. This clash became particularly clear to me as I became involved in an independent and unauthorized women's Koran course in Sincan, a suburb of Ankara. I participated in this course in order to understand conservative religious lifestyles in Turkey, and to gain insight into the view of secularism that many pious Muslims held in Turkish society soon after the collapse of the Islamist-leaning government in 1997. The involvement in the Koran course certainly allowed me to carry out this research, but also gave me an interesting perspective from which to examine the politicization of religious knowledge and education at a rather turbulent time in Turkey's economic and political history. To appreciate the political importance and sensitivity of religious instruction, it is necessary to understand the nature of secularism in Turkey and most especially the relationship between the Turkish state and religion. The Turkish population is overwhelmingly Muslim, but especially since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the foundation of the modern Turkish republic in 1923, Turkey's government and major social institutions have been staunchly secular. The early Republican government, led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, saw secularization as essential to the creation of a truly modern nation-state. Indeed, Kemalism (the ideology based on the doctrines of Mustafa Kemal) promotes what it considers to be secularism, along with nationalism, economic development and Westernization, as the ideological basis of the modern Turkish Republic. Many aspects of Turkish society-from education and governance to the organization of daily life-were officially secularized over a relatively short period of time. However, Turkish secularism more closely resembles French laicite than American-style secularism. Where secularism in the United States strives for a complete separation of church and state, laicism (laiklik) in Turkey strives to bring religion under the control of the state. The idea is that religion should not be in the hands of a powerful and independent cleric elite (ulema) that can rival government power, but should be brought under the control of the non-religious state, where it no longer poses a potential threat to government hegemony (Davison 2003:341; White 2002:4). As such, Turkish secularism-or laicism-does not make assumptions of religious neutrality or objectivity in the public sphere, but instead religion is tightly defined and legally subordinated to the political establishment. Religion is controlled by a branch of government, the Directorate of Religious Affairs, whose main task, according to the 1982 Turkish constitution, is to regulate Islam, especially its public expressions, such that it guarantees that these expressions accord with the needs of the state (Yavuz 2000:29; Yilmaz 2005:388). Controlling religious education is, of course, an essential method of "domesticating" religion and guaranteeing that it remains relatively harmless. Over the course of the Westernizing reforms in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, education became more and more secular (Mardin 1993:350-353). Since the founding of the modern Turkish republic in 1923, compulsory general education has been secular, ending once and for all the influences of the traditional Ottoman medreses, or religious schools. The new Republican government put all education under the control of the Ministry of Education, developing a unified curriculum and educational system that would articulate a particular cultural and moral identity-a Turkish identity-to be shared by the (Turkish) citizens of the new nation (Kaplan 2006:39). This identity included a very particular interpretation of Islam that was encoded in official religious educational practices and institutions, while alternative interpretations were condemned and often declared illegal by the Turkish government. …

Religion and Economic Development

Abstract: READING THE HISTORIAN Arnold Toynbee's lectures on the British Industrial Revolution, it is quickly apparent that conditions in England prior to 1760 were in many respects similar to those in developing countries today: Poor infrastructure and communication, lack of technological innovation, no division of labor, a focus on local commerce, and a weak banking system. (1) Surprisingly, the modern study of religion and economics begins with Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), an examination of conditions leading to the Industrial Revolution. In his book, Smith applies his innovative laissez-faire philosophy to several aspects of religion. However, Smith's fundamental contribution to the modern study of religion was that religious beliefs and activities are rational choices. As in commercial activity, people respond to religious costs and benefits in a predictable, observable manner. People choose a religion and the degree to which they participate and believe (if at all). Smith's contribution to the study of religion is not simply theoretical. He held substantive views, for example, on the relationship between organized religion and the state. Smith argued strongly for a disassociation between church and state. Such a separation, he said, allows for competition, thereby creating a plurality of religious faiths in society. (2) By showing no preference for one religion over others, but rather permitting any and all religions to be practiced, the lack of state intervention (short of violence, coercion, and repression) creates an open market in which religious groups engage in rational discussion about religious beliefs. This setting creates an atmosphere of "good temper and moderation." Where there is a state monopoly on religion or an oligopoly among religions, one will find zealousness and the imposition of ideas on the public. Where there is an open market for religion and freedom of speech, one will find moderation and reason. A contemporary of Smith (though they were not acquainted) and a public intellectual during the British Industrial Revolution, John Wesley had much to say about the relationship between religion and economic development, though his perspective differed radically from Smith's. Wesley (1703-1791), a theologian and the founder of Methodism and the Holiness Movement, championed the two-way causation between religion and economic growth, preaching in 1744, "Gain all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can." Later, in his famous sermon of 1760, "The Use of Money," Wesley expounded upon these three points, emphasizing hard work, self-reliance, and mutual aid. Finally, just two years before his death (he lived to be 88), Wesley berated his congregants from the pulpit for their comfortable lifestyle and urged them to give away their fortunes. In the 45 years between these two sermons, Wesley's followers, by working hard and saving, had raised themselves up into the comfortable middle class. Wesley understood very well the direct causal relationship between religious beliefs and productivity. He also understood well that wealth accumulation could weaken religiosity both in terms of beliefs and participation. Wesley concluded that economic growth was detrimental to religion. Is it? And, if so, must it be? The two-way causation LET US LOOK at the two-way causation and, thereby, the relationship between religion and development. First, how does a nation's economic and political development affect its level of religiosity? When we look at the effects of economic development on religion, we find that overall development--represented by per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP)--tends to reduce religiosity. (3) The empirical evidence supports, to a degree, the secularization thesis which holds that with increased income, people tend to become less religious (as measured by religious attendance and religious beliefs). Economic development causes religion to play a lesser role in the political process and in policymaking, in the legal process, as well as in social arrangements (marriages, friendships, colleagues). …

The role of religion in modern societies

Abstract: List of Tables List of Graphs Preface Detlef Pollack and Daniel Olson Chapter 1: Introduction: Religious Change in Modern Societies- Perspectives Offered By the Sociology of Religion Detlef Pollack Section One: The secularization theory: Classical assumptions and ramifications Chapter 2: The Continuing Secular Transition David Voas Chapter 3: God, Gaelic and Needlepoint: Religion as a Social Accomplishment Steve Bruce Chapter 4: Religion in Central and Eastern Europe: Was There a Re-awakening After the Breakdown of Communism? Olaf Muller Section Two: The market model: Classical assumptions and ramifications Chapter 5: Quantitative Evidence Favoring and Opposing the Religious Market Model Daniel Olson Chapter 6: Secularization and the State: The Role Government Policy Plays in Determining Social Religiosity Anthony Gill Chapter 7: Unsecular Europe: The Persistence of Religion Andrew Greeley Section 3: The individualization thesis: Classical assumptions and ramifications Chapter 8: From 'Believing without belonging' to 'Vicarious Religion': Understanding the Patterns of Religion in Modern Europe Grace Davie Chapter 9: The Cultural Paradigm: Declines in Belonging and Then Believing Robin Gill Chapter 10: Religious individualization or secularization: An attempt to evaluate the thesis of religious individualization in Eastern and Western Germany Gert Pickel and Detlef Pollack Section Four: New theories on religion and modernity exemplified at the European case Chapter 11: Religion and Science or Religion versus Science? About the Social Construction of the Science-Religion-Antagonism in the German Democratic Republic and its Lasting Consequences Monika Wohlrab-Sahr Chapter 12: Secularization Theory and Rational Choice: An integration of macro- and micro-theories of secularization using the example of Switzerland Joerg Stolz Contributors Index

Hannah Arendt on the Secular

Abstract: Despite the current debate about the concept of secularization and the poli tics of secularism around the world, Hannah Arendt has not generally been understood as a proponent of either. But her most prominent study of the liberatory possibilities that modern politics might allow, On Revolution, is also an account of the struggle against a civilization grounded on religious premises in favor of one beyond their claims. It would not be too much to say that Arendt placed secularization at the very center of her analysis of the revolutionary phenomenon and secularism at the core of her political hopes. Put simply, Arendt thought that what was at stake in modernity was leaving religion behind, at least as the foundation of public coexistence. Conversely, modernity took its most politically defective forms when (among other things) it had failed to make its necessary break with the religious civilization that preceded it.1 In what follows, besides reconstructing the fundamentals of Arendt's case, I try to show that it is usefully interpreted as a kind of response to and critique of Carl Schmitt's doctrine of "political theology" as outlined in a famous 1922 book ofthat name. Both Arendt and Schmitt were central to the

Evangelical Christianity and Women's Changing Lives

Abstract: Women have outnumbered men as followers of Christianity at least since the transition to industrial capitalist modernity in the West. Yet developments in women's lives in relation to employment, family and feminist values are challenging their Christian religiosity. Building on a new strand of gender analysis in the sociology of religion, this article argues that gender is central to patterns of religiosity and secularization in the West. It then offers a case study of evangelical Christianity in England to illustrate how changes in women's lives are affecting their religiosity. Specifically, it argues that evangelical Christianity continues to be important among women occupying more traditional social positions (as wives and mothers), but adherence is declining among the growing number whose lives do not fit this older model.

Secularism in the Framework of Heterodoxy

Abstract: The rise of the religious right in societies around the world has brought back the contentious issue of religion's place in modern life. The secularization thesis is constantly invoked to explain the historical devaluation of religion's function in society (at least in the Protestant world) from normative to nominal as religion is relegated to the private space of individual belief. While the subject has engaged historians, sociologists, and religious scholars for a long time, yielding a vast and proliferating body of work (Asad; Berger; Casanova; Connolly; Taylor, Secular Age; Wilson), the field of literary studies has not witnessed a corresponding breadth of scholarship. This may be partly due to literature's self-definition as a secular vehicle for ideas whose possible religious origins were subsequently effaced as religious sensibility became absorbed into aesthetic form and imagery, especially in modernist writing. Contributing in no small measure to the perception that literature represents an outgrowth of secularism is Matthew Arnold's influential claim that literature succeeds a depleted Christianity and contains the moral values and direction once supplied by a religious ethos.

Religious Nationalism in Modern Europe: If God be for Us

Abstract: This volume examines the enduring nature of religious nationalism in modern Europe. Through a series of in-depth case studies covering Ireland, England, Poland, and Greece; the author argues that religious frontiers, or geographic lines of division between different and unique religions, are central to the formation of religiously-based national identities. Typically, as states develop economically and politically, religion plays a lesser role in both individual lives and national identity. However, at religious frontiers, religion becomes useful for differentiating and mobilizing groups of people. This is particularly true when the religious frontier also represents a threat or conflict. Although religion may not be the root of conflict in these instances, the conflict takes on religious tones because of its ability to unite an otherwise diverse population. Religion takes precedence over language, culture, or other national building-blocks because the "other" can best be distinguished in religious terms. The in-depth case studies allow for a deep historical understanding of the processes which converge to create a modern religious nation. Greatly expanding our current understanding of the conditions in which religious nationalism develops, this important book has implications for our understanding of religion and politics, secularization, European politics and foreign policy.

Catholicism in Modern Italy: Religion, Society and Politics since 1861

Abstract: Acknowledgements. Glossary and list of abbreviations 1. Introduction 2. Catholicism and the Liberal Revolution (1815-1870) 3. The Catholic Recovery (1870-1914) 4. Italian Catholicism and the Challenges of Industrial Development (1880-1914) 5. Italian Catholics, the Great War and the Rise of Fascism (1914-1929) 6. Fascism, War and the Resistance (1929-1945) 7. The Age of Catholic 'Triumphalism' (1945-1958) 8. The New 'Secularisation' (1958-1978) 9. Italy in the Age of Religious Pluralism (1978 to the Present) 10. Conclusion. Endnotes. Bibliography. Index

God in Nederland 1996-2006

Abstract: A reading of God in Nederland 1996-2006 informs a critique of some intellectual routines in sociology of religion. On the positive side, the book goes beyond a simplistic one-dimensional conception of "secularization" as declining Christian affiliations by adding analyses of post-Christian spirituality and Christian religion's social and public significance. The latter is however reduced to the mere study of attitudes, thus neglecting real-life practices that may change in different directions. (Longitudinal) survey data moreover have inherent shortcomings that seem insufficiently acknowledged. Rather than addressing theoretically vital social and public significance of post-Christian spirituality, the authors stick to reproducing conventional (yet flawed and sociologically naive) claims about contemporary spirituality as privatized, fragmented, and individualized. It is finally pointed out that with the steady decline of Christian religiosity it becomes increasingly important to study worldviews of non-Christians and perhaps even wrap up sociology of religion in less narrowly defined sociology of culture.

John Locke, Christian Liberty, and the Predicament of Liberal Toleration:

Abstract: Recently, scholars have disputed whether Locke's political theory should be read as the groundwork of secular liberalism or as a Protestant political theology Focusing on Locke's mature theory of toleration, the article raises a central question: What if these two readings are compatible? That is, what would be the consequences if Locke's political philosophy has theological foundations, but has also given shape to secular liberalism? Examining Locke's theory in the Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), the article argues that this is indeed the case The liberal model of toleration is a secularization of the theology of Christian liberty and its division of society into a temporal political kingdom and the spiritual kingdom of Christ Therefore, when liberal toleration travels beyond the boundaries of the Christian West or when western societies become multicultural, it threatens to lose its intelligibility

'Dining with the Devil': The Unique Secularization of American Evangelical Churches

Abstract: Introduction It has often been said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. When one cultural group begins to imitate the way of life of another, however, they are, to some degree, disavowing their past and assuming a new identity. In the case of many American evangelical churches, the corporate business culture represents an organizational model with an intoxicating appeal. Over the last twenty years, the influence of the church growth movement has accelerated the "McDonaldization" of numerous evangelical churches. Sociologist George Ritzer defines McDonaldization as "the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world." (1) McDonaldization has extended the process of rationalization to the realm of all major social institutions, including religion. In some cases, this process has occurred in a literal fashion; several churches in the southern United States have added McDonald's restaurants and similar retail food establishments to their facilities, complete with drive-through windows. Food courts, bookstores, cafes, boutiques, and even banks have also become part of the worship experience. These developments are best viewed as a by-product of a fundamental paradigm shift in religious organization among evangelicals, that is, churches restructuring themselves according to a corporate business model. The church growth movement has gained a foothold in modern evangelical religious life. It is making rapid and extensive progress toward its goals with little national attention. Its resources in terms of leadership, organizational networks, and finances are growing rapidly. At the same time, the movement's religious, social, political, and economic goals have become increasingly global in scope. Opponents of this movement claim that it is redefining historic religious and cultural realities. The authors of this study argue that the church growth movement, which is poorly understood, represents a serious challenge to the traditional organizational methods of American evangelical churches. In short, there is a need for a fuller understanding of the church growth movement in light of its recent successes in implementing this new business-based organizational model. Origins of the Church Growth Movement Comprehensive treatments of the history of the church growth movement are available elsewhere. (2) An examination of a few dimensions of the history of this movement is important, however, to more fully understand its contemporary success and appeal. While some analysts contend that the techniques advocated by the modern church growth movement predate the 1950s, the impetus for the rise of the movement stems from David McGavran's pioneering writings. (3) In Understanding Church Growth (1990), a pivotal work in church growth movement literature, McGavran, an evangelical missionary and seminary professor, together with fellow missionary C. Peter Wagner, called for maintaining accurate records, setting statistical goals for growth, and the use of insights derived from the social sciences to develop church growth strategies. They also highlighted several case studies reflecting the application of their model of church growth that would influence subsequent evangelical mission work. (4) Later, in The Bridges of God (1995), McGavran introduced the concept of cultural contextualism. He observed that new church buildings constructed by foreign missionaries in Africa were typically designed to reflect the architecture of their home countries, and did not adequately reflect the culture of local residents. For McGavran, such practices presented a serious problem for the advancement of missionary work. He proposed that some measure of local cultural accommodation should become an essential part of the missionary effort in order to better connect with local populations. He also emphasized practicality in church organization, and the development of numerical measures of success such as periodic reports on the number of new converts. …

Situating the “Secular”: Negotiating the Boundary between Religion and Politics

Abstract: In recent decades, scholars in the field of international relations (IR) have increasingly paid attention to issues of religion—often linked to “civilizational” and “cultural” identities. The IR field at large unconsciously assumes, however, that there is a “secular”“norm” against which the “religious” dimensions of IR can be analyzed or compared. Western IR scholars often take the “secular” for granted, rarely considering how the boundaries of the “secular” are defined and deployed in scholarship and policy. Building on decades of debate over “secularization theory” by sociologists of religion (see Hadden 1987; Chaves 1994; Stark 1999; Cox 2000), William E Connolly’s (1999) critique of “secularism,” and Elizabeth Shakman Hurd’s (2004, 2007) examination of secularist assumptions in IR theory, this article suggests that defining secularism as a political negotiation over the accepted role of religion in public life rather than as an a priori category (Hurd 2004; Goldstone 2007) has methodological and theoretical consequences to which IR scholars and policy makers, particularly those interested in issues of democratization and religious fundamentalism should pay attention. Using illustrations from the Middle East—a current focal point for debate on both democratization and religious fundamentalism—this article builds on the secularization debate to suggest that IR scholarship treating the “secular” and “religious” as opposing categories obscures more than it explains in terms of analyzing the role of religion in contemporary Middle Eastern politics.

Returning to Religion: Why a Secular Age is Haunted by Faith

Abstract: How can one explain the resurgence of religion, even in a western context of rationality, postmodernity and scientific endeavour? The persistence of religious expression has compelled even diehard secularists, or proponents of the 'secularization thesis', to rethink their positions. Jonathan Benthall explains precisely why societies are not bound to embrace western liberal rationality as an evolutionary inevitability. He shows that the opposite is true: that where a secular society represses the religious imagination, the human predisposition to religion will in the end break out in surprising, apparently secular, modes and outlets.Concentrating on what he calls 'para-religion', a kind of secular spirituality that manifests itself within movements and organisations who consider themselves motivated by wholly rational considerations, Benthall uncovers a paradox: despite themselves, they are haunted by the shadow of irrationality. Arguing that humanitarianism, environmentalism, the animal rights movement, popular archaeology and anthropology all have 'religiod' aspects, his startling conclusion is that religion, rather than coming 'back', in fact never went away. A human universal, the 'religious inclination' underlies the fabric of who we are, and is essential for the healthy functioning of any society.

Spirituality, Religion, and Aging Research in Social Work: State of the Art and Future Possibilities

Abstract: This article identifies the unique contributions social work has made to the study of spirituality and religion in relation to aging, based on respect for their diverse expressions. Definitions of religion and spirituality that particularly relate to late life are provided. The study of spirituality and aging is situated in four historical phases ranging from sectarian origins (1890s to 1920), to professionalization and secularization (1920s–1970s), to renewed interest (1980s to mid 1990s), to the current phase characterized by transcending boundaries. Interdisciplinary research by social workers is prevalent. Topics of study include a wide range of religious and nonreligious spiritual perspectives, cultural groups, and life domains. There is an expansion of interest in international research and collaboration on spirituality and aging as well. Future research possibilities include functions of religion and spirituality for older adults, spirituality in relation to professional direct practice, p...

Max Weber on Democracy: Can the People Have Political Power in Modern States?

Abstract: Max Weber was notoriously skeptical about the applicability of ancient conceptions of democracy to political life in modern states. In his later work in particular he increasingly emphasized the unfeasibility of anything but ‘plebiscitary leadership democracy’ under contemporary political conditions. His claims about the indispensability of leadership and the ineradicable role of parties in modern political life played an essential role in the development of Robert Michels’ views about political parties. 1 They provided the foundation for Joseph Schumpeter’s “elitist” theory of democracy. 2 And they had at least some influence on Carl Schmitt’s more vociferously anti-democratic views. 3 But Weber also (unlike Schmitt), had a powerful interest in establishing the extent to which human freedom, or autonomy, could be preserved in modern societies. As we shall see, freedom, for Weber, meant the capacity for meaningful action. And he was specifically concerned about the diminishing potential of human beings to realize this kind of freedom in political life. 4 Given this concern, we might expect his work to contain elements from which a more genuinely participatory conception of democracy might be built. 5 In this paper I shall agree with those who want to attribute to Weber an implicit ideal of freedom. But I shall argue that this ideal will not help those who wish to retrieve the ‘democratic Weber.’ In fact, I shall claim, insofar as this ideal informs his understanding of democratic ideals, it is part of the problem. I shall first outline the basis of Weber’s skepticism about democracy. This will involve analyzing his account of political power and the constraints on who can have it in modern states. According to this account, the democratic ideal of popular political power cannot be realized under modern conditions. Given the increasing attachment to the idea, since the French Revolution, that only democratic forms of government are legitimate, there seems to be a potential instability in modern politics. I hope to explain through this analysis why it is that plebiscitary leadership democracy suggests itself to him as a natural compromise between democratic ideals and political necessities. But I shall also claim that Weber could have avoided the problem in another way. His account of the appeal of democratic ideals is informed by his ideal of freedom. It is extracted from his account of the methodical-rational personality fostered by Protestantism. It is a secularized religious conception of freedom and it is rooted in an extremely pessimistic account of secularization. If Weber had excised this element from his work he would have had available to him, on his own terms, a less

Holy Fathers, Secular Sons: Clergy, Intelligentsia, and the Modern Self in Revolutionary Russia

Abstract: "Holy Fathers, Secular Sons" is the first study of the Orthodox clergy's contribution to Russian society. Prior to the 1860s, clergymen's sons were not allowed to leave the castelike clergy in large numbers. When permission was granted, they responded by entering free professions and political movements in droves. Challenging the standard view of educated pre-revolutionary Russians as largely westernized, secular, and patricidal, Manchester demonstrates that the clergymen's sons did retain their fathers' values. This was even true of the minority who became atheists. Drawing on the clergy's commitment to moral activism, anti-aristocratism, and nationalism, clergymen's sons believed they could, and should, save Russia. The consequence was a cultural revolution that helped pave the way for the 1917 revolutions.Using a massive array of previously untapped archival and published sources - including lively first-hand autobiographical writings of over two hundred clergymen's sons - Manchester constructs a composite biography of their childhoods, educations, and adult lives. In a highly original approach, she explores how they employed the image of the clerical family to structure their political, professional, and personal lives. Manchester's work provides a window into an extremely significant but little-known world of Russian educated culture, while also contributing to histories of lived religion, private life, and memory, as well as to debates over secularization, modernity, and revolution. "Holy Fathers, Secular Sons" powerfully challenges the assumptions that radical change cannot be inspired by tradition and that the modern age is inherently secular.Those interested in Russian history, the history of religion, and the relation of religion to politics will appreciate this important study.

The Angel of History: Rosenzweig, Benjamin, Scholem

Abstract: Contents Introduction 000 Part 1. Franz Rosenzweig: The Other Side of the West 1 Dissimilation 000 2 Hegel Taken Literally 000 3 Utopia and Redemption 000 Part 2. Walter Benjamin: The Three Models of History 4 Metaphors of Origin: Ideas, Names, Stars 000 5 The Esthetic Model 000 6 The Angel of History 000 Part 3. Gershem Scholem: The Secret History 7 The Paradoxes of Messianism 000 8 Kafka, Freud, and the Crisis of Tradition 000 9 Language and Secularization 000 Notes 000