Rethinking Religion

Author : Timothy Samuel Shah
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199827982
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking Religion and World Affairs written by Timothy Samuel Shah and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, the role of religion in the study and conduct of international affairs has become increasingly important. The essays in this volume seek to question and remedy the problematic neglect of religion in extant scholarship, grappling with puzzles, issues, and questions concerning religion and world affairs in six major areas. Contributors 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. Finally, the volume addresses the representation of religion in the expanding global media landscape, the unique place of religion in American foreign policy, and the dilemmas it presents. Drawing on the work of leading scholars as well as policy makers and analysts, Rethinking Religion and World Affairs is the first comprehensive and authoritative guide to the interconnections of religion and global politics.

Author : Bernard Lightman
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN 13 : 082298704X
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking History, Science, and Religion written by Bernard Lightman and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The historical interface between science and religion was depicted as an unbridgeable conflict in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Starting in the 1970s, such a conception was too simplistic and not at all accurate when considering the totality of that relationship. This volume evaluates the utility of the “complexity principle” in past, present, and future scholarship. First put forward by historian John Brooke over twenty-five years ago, the complexity principle rejects the idea of a single thesis of conflict or harmony, or integration or separation, between science and religion. Rethinking History, Science, and Religion brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars at the forefront of their fields to consider whether new approaches to the study of science and culture—such as recent developments in research on science and the history of publishing, the global history of science, the geographical examination of space and place, and science and media—have cast doubt on the complexity thesis, or if it remains a serviceable historiographical model.

Author : E. Thomas Lawson
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521438063
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking Religion written by E. Thomas Lawson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993-01-14 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an ambitious attempt to develop a cognitive approach to religion. Focusing particularly on ritual action, it borrows analytical methods from linguistics and other cognitive sciences. The authors, a philosopher of science and a scholar of comparative religion, provide a lucid critical review of established approaches to religion, and make a strong plea for the combination of interpretation and explanation. Often represented as competitive approaches, they are rather, complementary, equally vital to the study of symbolic systems.

Author : Steven J. Sutcliffe
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317546245
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book New Age Spirituality written by Steven J. Sutcliffe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New Age and holistic beliefs and practices - sometimes called the "new spirituality" - are widely distributed across modern global society. The fluid and popular nature of new age makes these movements a very challenging field to understand using traditional models of religious analysis. Rather than treating new age as an exotic specimen on the margins of 'proper' religion, "New Age Spirituality" examines these movements as a form of everyday or lived religion. The book brings together an international range of scholars to explore the key issues: insight, healing, divination, meditation, gnosis, extraordinary experiences, and interactions with gods, spirits and superhuman powers. Combining discussion of contemporary beliefs and practices with cutting-edge theoretical analysis, the book repositions new age spirituality at the forefront of the contemporary study of religion.

Author : Barbara O'Brien
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780692224502
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking Religion written by Barbara O'Brien and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-20 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does religion have something positive to offer the 21st century (and beyond)? Or is it a vestige of the Iron Age that ought to be contained in museums, preferably under bell jars? More critically, is it even possible to be religious and also be a rational and entirely modern participant in 21st-century civilization? Is it possible to live a devotional, religious life today without denying science or otherwise being assimilated by some religious-authoritarian Borg? Rethinking Religion argues that today's clown-shoes religiosity is an infantile caricature of religion that the great theologians, scholars, saints and sages of the past wouldn't recognize as religion at all. Religion may be salvageable, and may even be beneficial, but only if we can rediscover what it is and how to make use of it. Rethinking Religion is a proposal for how we might do that. This book is not written from any one sectarian position. The author was raised Christian in the Bible Belt, but she has been a formal student of Soto Zen Buddhism for many years and is currently the expert on Buddhism for the reference website About.com. The perspectives in Rethinking Religion apply to all the world's religious great religious traditions - Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and the rest of them. The author also is supportive of atheism and does not think everyone has to be religious. Along the way, the author explains why Christian megachurches turn Christ into McJesus; why being "spiritual but not religious" may not be a good idea; why Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Burma (Myanmar) are turning violent; and why people join cults and believe ridiculous things. This book also challenges assumptions - why "faith" is not the same as "belief"; why some atheists aren't nearly skeptical enough; why "reality" may not be what you think it is; why morality doesn't have to be tied to religion; and why there may be a God, but if so, God isn't God - or at least, any God you can imagine. Today, most of the ongoing violent conflicts around the globe have a connection to religion. Recent studies reveal that religion-based violence is on the rise, in fact. In many ways religion has become a millstone around humanity's neck, holding us back from our potential to live in peace and harmony and enjoy the blessings of science. Rethinking Religion will show you that it doesn't have to be this way, and argues that enlightened religion is the most effective weapon against oppressive and stupid religion.

Author : Stewart M. Hoover
Publisher : SAGE
ISBN 13 : 9780761901716
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.1X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking Media, Religion, and Culture written by Stewart M. Hoover and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1997-01-31 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book links the growing connections between media, culture and religion into a coherent theoretical whole. It examines, amongst others, the effect on cultural practices and the increasing autonomy and individualized practice of religion.

Author : Julia Kindt
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521110920
Total Pages : 251 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking Greek Religion written by Julia Kindt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-02 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores 'polis religion' - a leading paradigm in current studies on ancient Greek religion - and shows ways of moving beyond it.

Author : Warren A. Nord
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Religion & American Education written by Warren A. Nord and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 1995 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nord's thoughtful book tackles an issue of great importance in contemporary America--the proper place of religion in our public schools and universities. Nord's comprehensive study encompasses American history, constitutional law, educational theory and practice, theology and ethics.

Author : Craig Calhoun
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199796742
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking Secularism written by Craig Calhoun and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-10 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays presents groundbreaking work from an interdisciplinary group of leading theorists and scholars representing the fields of history, philosophy, political science, sociology, and anthropology. The volume will introduce readers to some of the most compelling new conceptual and theoretical understandings of secularism and the secular, while also examining socio-political trends involving the relationship between the religious and the secular from a variety of locations across the globe. In recent decades, the public has become increasingly aware of the important role religious commitments play in the cultural, social, and political dynamics of domestic and world affairs. This so called ''resurgence'' of religion in the public sphere has elicited a wide array of responses, including vehement opposition to the very idea that religious reasons should ever have a right to expression in public political debate. The current global landscape forces scholars to reconsider not only once predominant understandings of secularization, but also the definition and implications of secular assumptions and secularist positions. The notion that there is no singular secularism, but rather a range of multiple secularisms, is one of many emerging efforts to reconceptualize the meanings of religion and the secular. Rethinking Secularism surveys these efforts and helps to reframe discussions of religion in the social sciences by drawing attention to the central issue of how ''the secular'' is constituted and understood. It provides valuable insight into how new understandings of secularism and religion shape analytic perspectives in the social sciences, politics, and international affairs.

Author : Esther Bloch
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135182795
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rethinking Religion in India written by Esther Bloch and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-12-24 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book critically assesses recent debates about the colonial construction of Hinduism. Increasingly scholars have come to realise that the dominant understanding of Indian culture and its traditions is unsatisfactory. According to the classical paradigm, Hindu traditions are conceptualized as features of a religion with distinct beliefs, doctrines, sacred laws and holy texts. Today, however, many academics consider this conception to be a colonial ‘construction’. This book focuses on the different versions, arguments and counter-arguments of the thesis that the Hindu religion is a construct of colonialism. Bringing together the different positions in the debate, it provides necessary historical data, arguments and conceptual tools to examine the argument. Organized in two parts, the first half of the book provides new analyses of historical and empirical data; the second presents some of the theoretical questions that have emerged from the debate on the construction of Hinduism. Where some of the contributors argue that Hinduism was created as a result of a western Christian notion of religion and the imperatives of British colonialism, others show that this religion already existed in pre-colonial India; and as an alternative to these standpoints, other writers argue that Hinduism only exists in the European experience and does not correspond to any empirical reality in India. This volume offers new insights into the nature of the construction of religion in India and will be of interest to scholars of the History of Religion, Asian Religion, Postcolonial and South Asian Studies.