Challenge Of Religious Pluralism Research Articles

Catholic Education and the Challenge of Religious Pluralism: The Private Catholic High School Saint Luc in Burkina Faso

How can a Catholic school carry out this mission in a context of religious pluralism? In Burkina Faso where the literacy rate is quite low, Catholic education is popular, including among non-Catholics. Catholic schools welcome students from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, including many Muslim students. The Catholic high school Saint Luke of Banfora clearly affirms its Christian identity, but it also promotes inter-religious dialogue. This articles explains how in practice the school promotes respect for each other's faith.

Disciplinary Trespassing, Historical Analysis, and Geopolitics: A Commentary on the Ecumenical Significance of the Event of the Holy and Great Council of Crete

ABSTRACT This essay is a commentary on assessments of the ecumenical significance of the Holy and Great Council (HGC) of the Orthodox Church at Crete in 2016. Relying on methods on Albert Hirschman’s notion of disciplinary trespassing and Jo Guildi and David Armitage’s commitment to long-range historical analysis, the essay considers the HGC as an event whose ecumenical potential was understood by the Ecumenical Patriarchate as inextricably linked to the realities of pan-Orthodox unity. The category of geopolitics is introduced as a key factor in explaining the challenges of Orthodox unity that shaped the preparations and processes of the HGC, constrained the fulsomeness of ecumenical outputs and impacts of the Crete event, and laid bare the challenges of religious pluralism and diversity within Christianity in the contemporary world.

Muslim Theologies of Solidarity and Disavowal and the Challenge of Religious Pluralism

ABSTRACT Rawls' conception of political liberalism does not reckon exclusivist salvation religions to be, for that reason alone, unreasonable. He posits, however, that exclusivist doctrines of salvation are likely to become more generous in their views of the religious other with the experience of toleration. While the religious welcome toleration by the majority, relaxation of doctrines of salvation dilutes the urgency of religious truth, and so reduces a religion's ability to justify its existence. Paradoxically, political toleration creates a countervailing demand within a religious community to articulate more precisely what is intolerable in the religious other. This paper explores the dialectic between toleration and nontoleration in the history of Muslim sects and suggests that this history offers lessons on the kinds of strategies that can be successful in promoting religious tolerance in a Muslim society, as well as the limits that might reasonably be expected in those societies.

Conservative Inclusivity and Hierarchical Diversity

Abstract By discussing Chinese Muslim dakwah (proselytisation) activities, as well as examining how Chinese Muslims engage with broader Islamic practices, gain support from various Muslim organisations and interact with various Muslim individuals, this paper examines the possibilities, limitations, and challenges of religious pluralism in Indonesia today. Generally speaking, Chinese Muslims’ dakwah activities reflect the broader trend of religious discourses among Indonesian Muslims—a support for inclusivity and diversity, yet at the same time, an increasing “conservative turn;” and the notion of diversity has been redefined according to a rigid interpretation of Islamic teachings. I propose to understand such dynamics as forms of conservative inclusivity and hierarchical diversity. The challenge of religious pluralism in Indonesia today is less about the rejection of diversity among conservative Muslims, but more about the appropriation of the meaning of diversity and the scale of inclusivity.

Beyond 'us' and 'them': Islamic liturgy and the challenge of religious pluralism

Beyond 'us' and 'them': Islamic liturgy and the challenge of religious pluralism

“My blessed child does not need to know about that!”: How should sexual health educators confront the challenge of religious pluralism in working with individuals who have intellectual disabilities?

Summary In a recent series for National Public Radio in the United States, Joseph Shapiro exposes an undiscussed epidemic of sexual assault among those with intellectual disabilities. U.S. Department of Justice data indicates that people with intellectual disabilities are assaulted over seven times the national average. Although international data is sparse, similar patterns exist in other countries. Shapiro argues that comprehensive sexuality education is key to lowering the incidence of sexual assault among those with intellectual disabilities. However, in my experience as a sexuality educator, guardians and care providers of those with intellectual disabilities sometimes consider these individuals to be “blessed children” – people whose child-like innocence must be protected at all costs. As a result, people with intellectual disabilities are often asexualized. This, taken together with Shapiro's argument, leaves open an important question: how should sexual health educators confront the challenge of religious pluralism in working with individuals who have intellectual disabilities? I argue that sexual health educators should frame this work as a matter of civil rights in order to accommodate religious pluralism. I contend that if guardians and others who care for people with intellectual disabilities are genuinely committed to protecting their civil rights, they should also take an interest in their sexuality education if it is framed as a civil rights issue. Sexual health educators have an obligation to ensure that guardians and others who care for people with intellectual disabilities do not overlook sexuality in providing care or advocating for an individual with an intellectual disability.

Challenge of Religious Pluralism in Malaysia with Special Reference to the Sufi Thought of Ustaz Ashaari Muhammad

Ustaz Ashaari Muhammad (1937-2010) was a sufi leader best remembered for the controversies surrounding his eschatological teachings which led to the Malaysian government’s banning of his organization, Darul Arqam, in 1994. Loved by admirers but reviled by the state, Ashaari’s influence cut across ethnicity, nationality and religion. While the transnational dimensions of Ashaari’s activities were well-known, aspects of ethno-religious pluralism in his thought, as conveyed in a multitude of written works published independently, have mostly escaped the attention of analysts and casual observers alike. With contemporary Malaysian Islam being invariably understood via ethnically slanted lenses, it would not have occurred to most people that a Malay-Muslim religious personality would actually subscribe to pluralistic conceptions of society which are liable to be interpreted as undermining conceptions of Malay-Muslim hegemony dearly held by the ruling establishment of the day. This chapter seeks to bring to the fore features of Ashaari’s thought which exemplifies integration between Sufism and political realities as conditioned by nation state-defined categories.

RELIGIOUS PLURALISM AND THE HOSPITAL CHAPLAIN

Following theologian Raimon Panikkar, I argue that healthcare chaplaincy is authentic in regard to religious pluralism only when it is dialogical. In examples of pastoral problems of sacramental ministry and prayer that challenge the aims of denominational and multi-faith chaplaincy, I show how professional healthcare chaplains may enter into communion with patients in authentic relationships while maintaining a sense of alterity necessary for dialogue and effective ministry. I explore also the role of embodied alterity in the creative tension of intrapersonal rela-tionships. In response to the theological challenge of religious pluralism, I conclude that by experiencing dialogical pluralism in the reflective practice of ministry, healthcare chaplains can offer unique insights to pastoral theology.

Holidays in Kazan: The Public Sphere and the Politics of Religious Authority among Tatars in 1914

This article demonstrates that it was the public sphere shaped by the Kazan city duma and the local press, rather than the tsarist state alone, that strengthened Muslim identity among the urban Tatars. Norihiro Naganawa argues that the invocation of the empire's ruling principle of religious tolerance split the duma along confessional lines and undermined its arbitrating role. He also examines the political discussions among the local Tatar intellectuals over the timing and meaning of Islamic holidays. While the Spiritual Assembly, the long-standing hub of Muslim-state interaction, provided leverage for the mullahs in their efforts to maintain a secure domain for religion, this security dissipated as it became entangled in the competition for authority among increasingly numerous actors speaking for Islam and nation. Naganawa also suggests that late imperial Russia was confronted by the profound theoretical challenge of religious pluralism, to which not tsarism, nor liberal democracy, nor secularism had or have easy answers.

The Challenge of Religious Pluralism: The Association between Interfaith Contact and Religious Pluralism

This research contributes to increasing understanding of the ways in which Christians think about religious pluralism in the United States. It does so by empirically uncovering the relationship between inter-faith contact and the willingness of white Christians to support tenets of religious pluralism. To that end, this study largely intimates that religious identity reinforces a dualistic world view. For white Christians, it is likely that contact with Jews and not Muslims is salient to their religious pluralist understandings. Nonetheless, more so than other Christians, Evangelicals tend to embrace a theology that views their belief system as being in conflict and competition with non-Christians. To that end, it is plausible that even when Christians have positive contact experiences with Jews and Muslims, Evangelicals are less willing than are other Christians to recognize them as members of the American religious polity.

Local Governance and the Challenge of Religious Pluralism in Liberal Democracies: An Australian Perspective

Multiculturalism has gradually retreated as a meaningful concept for Australian identity and has, instead, been replaced by principles of equal citizenship and a commitment to the core values of Australian national identity. This paper firstly locates these shifts in broader theoretical debates underpinning democratic governance and equal citizenship. Secondly, and given that local government is a key constituent of Australia's democratic system, the paper seeks to explore the attitudes of local government representatives towards multicultural services and cultural citizenship in contemporary Australia. The empirical findings of this study show that a minority of local government representatives hold a negative outlook on cultural diversity and multicultural policies. The paper argues that it is important to ensure opportunities for intercultural understanding at the local level are optimised as a way of enhancing full and equal citizenship for all and thus creating greater possibilities for successful integration among religious and cultural minorities.

Misconceptions of the Religious ‘Other’

In a world in which we are faced with an ever-increasing religious diversity, the underlying assumption of this paper is that logical thought combined with accurate and reliable knowledge can make a significant contribution to the reduction of conflicts that arise through fallacious arguments and through both ignorance and misinformation of the beliefs and practices of religions other than one’s own. The paper summarizes some of the challenges of religious pluralism, demonstrating how tensions can arise and be exacerbated through the construction of negative images of ‘the other’, and outlines some of the common misconceptions that have led to conflicts and the abuse of the human rights of members of minority religions.

Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Challenge of Religious Pluralism

Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Challenge of Religious Pluralism

The challenge of religious pluralism: A reply to James Kraft

Religious pluralis does have, as James Kraft says, a negative impact on the epistemic confidence with which one holds a religious position, when epistemology is thought on both the externalist and internalist lines. I also conclude both that there is a resulting epistemic humility and that a tolerance of religious diversity results from it, but I reach these conclusions for entirely different reasons. Epistemic humility and religious tolerance are fostered by the realization that many religions are striving for the infinite, though all have limited views of it.

Policy Issues: Legislative and Institutional

Nationally, and at the state and institutional levels, we face a daunting dilemma. Since 9/11/2001 the challenges of religious pluralism, and its varied extremist elements, are having a daily impact, not only here in the U.S. but around our reeling globe. Here in the U.S. we have long standing white, Anglo Saxon, Protestant, religious assumptions and habits embedded in our psyche and expressed through our symbols and rituals – our currency, our Pledge of allegiance, our legal holidays, the Presidential inauguration and court practices where we swear on the Bible. Until fairly recently these foundations for our culture have gone largely unexamined in our schools, colleges and universities. Legal challenges from atheists or from those rooted in different belief systems which get to the Supreme Court create a short blip on our awareness screen, which quickly fades for most of us. Of course many of those who identify strongly with our Christian foundations are very aware of, and concerned about, the consequences of these challenges and the Court decisions, and the societal trends they support. But the rest of us continue our daily rounds paying scant attention to varied ways this tradition finds expression.

Book Review: Religious Freedom and Evangelization in Latin America: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism

Book Review: Religious Freedom and Evangelization in Latin America: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism

Religious Freedom and Evangelization in Latin America: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism

Religious Freedom and Evangelization in Latin America: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism

Religious Freedom and Evangelization in Latin America: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism. Edited by Paul E. Sigmund. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1999. 350 pp. $25.00

Religious Freedom and Evangelization in Latin America: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism. Edited by Paul E. Sigmund. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1999. 350 pp. $25.00 Karen Jones Karen Jones Baylor UniversityWaco, Texas Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Church and State, Volume 42, Issue 2, Spring 2000, Pages 383–385, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/42.2.383 Published: 01 March 2000

La société libérale face au défi du pluralisme culturel

The classical liberal tradition responded to the challenge of religious pluralism by defending the principle of tolerance. However, this principle encounters limitations when it comes to facing up to cultural pluralism. The article shows these limitations and suggests that the idea of multicultural politics developed by Will Kymlicka makes it possible to go beyond them. This step can only be grounded in a conception of recognition which questions some of the normative premises of liberal political philosophy, particularly the one-sided valorization of negative liberty and the opposition between the politics of equality and the politics of difference.

Beyond 2000: The Global World and Theological Education

This article offers an outline of the major challenges to theological education at the end of the millennium. The challenge of religious pluralism and the problem of denominational identity are given particular attention. Future theological education is anticipated also to demand greater attention to a new sense of tradition and identity formation. Finally, local experience and changes in culture and society have been too long ignored in theological education and need to be made part of the foundations of future teaching.