Concept Of Secularization Research Articles

Travelogue of secularism: Longing to find a place to call home

Recent works have invited us to look into how modes of secularism influence the shape of ‘modern’ religion. This literature has remained quite state-centred, paying less attention to how concepts of secularism migrate from one national context to another. This article seeks to investigate these transnational dynamics. More specifically, it aims to explore this process of travelling through the contemporary writings of the Quebec-based essayist Djemila Benhabib. The article approaches her writings as ‘travelogues’: a genre which acts as an invitation to focus on the ‘travelling’ dimension and politics of location of her accounts. A special emphasis is put on analysing how her writings are vehicles for the travel of gendered visions of secularism from France to Quebec. Ultimately, the article argues that taking these processes of transnational migrations into consideration is necessary to better locate and understand the politics of national debates.

Secularism in Medicine from Maqasid Al-Syariah

regaining health. Modern medicine however has evolved to be an almost secular entity and generally thought to be incompatible with Islam. Islamic medicine is also associated with nonevidenced based practices that are not in line with science. The objective of this study is to explore the concept of secularism that has influenced the framework of thought in medicine from the perspective of maqasid syari’ah (the objectives of Islamic law). Qualitative review incorporating related descriptive and comparative studies. The development of complementary medicine especially non evidence based practices had created confusion within society. At the same time, the modern medicine which based on scientific evidence is dissociated the relation between the human and The Creator. Both practice and belief is against the concept of maqasid syari’ah that aims to preserve the healthy state of the human with the ultimate objective to practice the religion, the authority of scientific based medicine and the authenticity of the epistemology in Islamic tradition of knowledge. In Islam standardization of medical practice is achieved by applying the concept of sunnatullah (the physical law of Allah Taala to the creation) and shari’atullah (the jurisprudence law in term of belief and practice). Practices which are aligned to these principles are accepted and the rest rejected. In other words, practices which are proven to be beneficial to humans and explainable by science yet maintaining the relationship between the human and God are considered to be Islamic medicine by principle. The finding of this review highlights the secularism that affect the complementary and modern medicine will affect the maqasid syari’ah in healthcare practices.

Laicità europea. Riflessioni sull’identità politica dell’Europa nel pluralismo ideale contemporaneo

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. Europa dei cittadini e identita politica del processo di integrazione continentale - 3. Spazio politico europeo, liberta religiosa e laicita - 4. Conclusioni . ABSTRACT: The evolution of the European Union law and of the right to religious freedom lies in the global process of internationalization of fundamental rights, the transformation of relations between States, the modification of the idea of sovereignty, the emergence of new conventional instruments. With reference to the European social and legal space, the transformation of the European Economic Community into a real political union has allowed the inalienable human rights of the people to become central in the process of integration. Because of that, the political and legal system of the European Union, characterized by the transition of the State monopoly of sovereignty to its sharing among different subjects, has affected the reality of relations between public powers and religious phenomenon. A particular configuration of the concept of secularism in the European continent has been established, by virtue, which the values of democracy, pluralism, human dignity and non-identification between public functions and religious experience would allow for peaceful coexistence between religion, institutional activity of the European Union and fundamental freedoms.

Dead-Survivors, the Living Dead, and Concepts of Death

The author introduces and critically analyzes two recent, curious findings and their accompanying explanations regarding how the folk intuits the capabilities of the dead and those in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). The dead are intuited to survive death, whereas PVS patients are intuited as more dead than the dead. Current explanations of these curious findings rely on how the folk is said to conceive of death and the dead: either as the annihilation of the person (via the secular conception of death), or that person’s continuation as a disembodied being (via folk dualism). The author argues that these two conceptions are incompatible and inconsistent with each other and the evidence. Contrariwise, the author argues that the folk intuition about dead-survivors and the living dead are more easily explained by appealing to cross-culturally established concepts: the folk biological concept of death the existential (metaphorical) concept of death, and the concept of social death.

СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ КОНЦЕПЦИИ И МОДЕЛИ ВЗАИМООТНОШЕНИЙ СВЕТСКОЙ И ДУХОВНОЙ ВЛАСТИ И РОССИЙСКАЯ ДЕЙСТВИТЕЛЬНОСТЬ

The publication deals with modern concepts and models of the relationship between secular and religious power. Based on the system-structural analysis, the elements, mechanisms and tools for implementing public management and state building in Russia were chosen out of the existing theoretical concepts and practical models of interaction between the religious and secular power. The author singled out the unitary concept, the concept of maximum secularization, the concept of inter-sectoral interactions. Besides, the corresponding models of the relationship between secular and spiritual power existing in several modern states were described. It is concluded that it is extremely important to envisage the active development of an inter-sectoral social partnership, the elements and tools of which are aimed at the effective solution of a set of problems of social development.

Respeto y retribución: la pena jurídica en La metafísica de las costumbres

The paper offers a reading of the section of the The Metaphysics of Morals in which Kant advances a secular conception of the legitimation of legal punishment, based upon the postulation of a (meta-)principle of respect as normative premise. On this basis, the precise meaning of the characterization of penal law as a “categorical imperative” is addressed, as well as the status of the “right of retribution” as standard for the commensuration of punishment. In this way, the paper seeks to undermine the linkage of Kant’s conception with the leitmotiv of a metaphysical realization of justice, as well as its interpretation as a version of a mixed theory, which would allegedly combine a deterrence goal with a mere side-constraint of desert-based proportionality.

Sovereignty in Islam: A reflection of tradition and contemporariness in modern political systems

Sovereignty in Islam means hakemia in Arabic and it is related to a holder of supreme power in a society, called hakem. In Islamic political and legal theory, a holder of sovereignty is God. God is a holder of supreme power, and above all, a legislator. Thus, in Islamic countries, a secular concept of a state regulation and having nation as a holder of sovereignty, man's rights and freedom of political organization is unacceptable. Moreover, when there is such a regulation in legal and political acts, it contains the previous fact that the sovereignty holder is God, and a nation's sovereignty is limited. Despite numerous changes that have happened in Islamic world during history, this view and understanding of sovereignty has not changed. Until recently, Islamic countries have not had any laws except those regulated by religious authorities. Even when the leaders used their power to proclaim regulations of a laic character, they had to give religious legitimacy to those regulations, and God has been and still is the only holder of sovereignty. Having showed how traditional Islam has treated sovereignty, the aim of the authors is to show how it is treated today. In fact, the autors' intention is to examine whether the idea of God's sovereignty is still present. As previously said, in essence, nothing has changed. Or more precisely, the theory on God as an exclusive sovereignty holder has not changed in almost the entire Islamic world. However, something else has been done, and it is contained in the fact that this view has been wrapped in contemporariness. The paper analyses the issue of sovereignty in Islam through two approaches: the first approach represents a thesis on unity of religion and politics in Islam, while the second one deals with the analyses of political praxis of Islamic states. On the basis of the analyses of Constitutional texts and practice, it is possible to divide Islamic states into three groups. The first group is the one where, by the Constitution, is clearly determined that God is a sovereignty holder; the second one, where a nation or a state has been determined as sovereignty, either as independent holders of sovereignty or in a community with its leader. The third group of states is the one that determines its sovereignty and holder in a similar way as it has been done in Europe and America. According to the Constitutional provision of these states on Islam as a state religion, conclusions on sovereignty of nations and borders have been drawn.

Marianne at the Beach: The French Burkini Controversy and the Shifting Meanings of Republican Secularism

ABSTRACTThis paper critically examines the controversy surrounding2 burkini-style swimsuits that arose in summer 2016 in France. Through a comparative analysis of representations of the ‘burkini’ in political discourse and in Muslim online forums, I explore the contested meanings attached to full-body ‘Islamic’ swimsuits. Contrary to hegemonic French representations of ‘Islamic’ swimsuits as manifestations of a politicised religiosity, ‘burkinis’ are described by women who wear them as an opportunity to claim access to spaces of leisure while still obeying their belief in dressing modestly. The burkini bans, I argue, have contributed to weakening expressions of religiosity that seek to resolve tensions between religious belief and a secular understanding of leisure and sociability. Elaborating on the transformations of French republicanism, I explore how the burkini controversy is related to the rise of exclusionary conceptions of secularism.

The Pope, the gays and the Dutch: Dutch secular responses to Pope Benedict XVI when homosexuality seems at stake

This article provides a critical discourse analysis of Dutch perceptions of, and responses to, papal utterances that were perceived to be (primarily) about homosexuality. It looks not only at secular conceptions of religion, in which the Pope’s views on homosexuality are taken as exemplary of the irrationality and libido dominandi of religion, but also at certain postsecular uses of religion to rebuke the Pope. It explains Pope Benedict’s (perceived) obsession with homosexuality by locating it in the context of a Vatican discourse against ‘gender ideology’, whereas it explains the Dutch media’s preoccupation with homosexuality by explaining that the papal pronouncements are seen as a threat to the international role of the Netherlands as a moral guide and, more precisely, a threat to what the Dutch see as their moral ‘export product’: ‘gay marriage’.

The Muslim Veil in France: Between Power and Silence, between Visibility and Invisibility

This paper will explore the contingency and fluidity of religious freedom in France and stress the existence of overlapping, competing and coexisting legal discourses in terms of national security and public order. In response to the Muslim veil, changing power structures, changing societal norms and new faces of injustice, established doctrines are reconsidered, reformulated and partly replaced by competing doctrines and hypotheses. Given the relative indeterminacy of law on the concept of secularism and French neutrality, it is no surprise that the problem of interpretation has always been one of the focal points of attention for legal practice and drafting.

Legislative Enforcement of Nonconsensual Determination of Neurological (Brain) Death in Muslim Patients: A Violation of Religious Rights

Death is defined in the Quran with a single criterion of irreversible separation of the ruh (soul) from the body. The Quran is a revelation from God to man, and the primary source of Islamic knowledge. The secular concept of death by neurological criteria, or brain death, is at odds with the Quranic definition of death. The validity of this secular concept has been contested scientifically and philosophically. To legitimize brain death for the purpose of organ donation and transplantation in Muslim communities, Chamsi-Pasha and Albar (concurring with the US President’s Council on Bioethics) have argued that irreversible loss of capacity for consciousness and breathing (apneic coma) in brain death defines true death in accordance with Islamic sources. They have postulated that the absence of nafs (personhood) and nafas (breath) in apneic coma constitutes true death because of departure of the soul (ruh) from the body. They have also asserted that general anesthesia is routine in brain death before surgical procurement. Their argument is open to criticism because: (1) the ruh is described as the essence of life, whereas the nafs and nafas are merely human attributes; (2) unlike true death, the ruh is still present even with absent nafs and nafas in apneic coma; and (3) the routine use of general anesthesia indicates the potential harm to brain-dead donors from surgical procurement. Postmortem general anesthesia is not required for autopsy. Therefore, the conclusion must be that legislative enforcement of nonconsensual determination of neurological (brain) death and termination of life-support and medical treatment violates the religious rights of observant Muslims.

Revisitando o secular: secularidades múltiplas e trajetórias para a modernidade

Os debates acadêmicos sobre a secularização e o secularismo atingiram um impasse infecundo. Os teóricos ortodoxos ou neo-ortodoxos da secularização insistem na universalidade epistemológica e na aplicabilidade universal de conceitos mais ou menos uniformes de secularização. Por contraste, as críticas pós-coloniais procuraram provincianizar a noção de secular, enfatizando sua origem ocidental e sua coimplicação com o Estado-nação, a violência e o colonialismo. Neste artigo, ocupamo-nos criticamente dessas abordagens e sugerimos, como perspectiva alternativa, o conceito de “secularidades múltiplas”. Se, por um lado, as abordagens universalista e pós-colonial tendem a dar forma e essência ao secular, nós pretendemos, por outro lado, historicizar e culturalizar a secularidade. Fazemo-lo argumentando que a secularidade se sustenta cultural e simbolicamente em formas de distinção entre as esferas e as práticas sociais religiosas e não religiosas e que as institucionalizações dessas distinções serviram como modo de lidar com diferentes problemas. Não obstante reconheça as historicidades particulares da secularidade, nossa conceptualização liberta-a, de forma significativa, de suas associações singulares ao Ocidente e à modernidade.

A multiplicidade da secularização: a sociologia da religião na era da globalização

A teoria weberiana da secularização é atualmente criticada por reproduzir pressupostos teleológicos oriundos das teorias da modernização. Defrontando-se com essa crítica, este artigo retoma a tese da unidade e variação desenvolvida por Shmuel Eisenstadt e, a partir de tais pressupostos, discute as possibilidades de atualização do conceito de secularização diante do cenário da globalização e da multiplicidade da modernidade. Após demonstrar que em Max Weber o tema já é tratado de forma multidimensional (histórica e estrutural), o artigo busca sistematizar o debate sobre a secularização no campo da sociologia da religião. Em seguida, examinam-se criticamente três modos distintos de apreensão das variedades da secularização: 1) multiplicidade de vias de secularização, 2) múltiplos secularismos e 3) múltiplas secularidades. O artigo advoga pela fecundidade e atualidade da teoria da secularização para determinar não só a natureza e a diversidade do religioso em condições modernas mas também para determinar o moderno na sua relação com o religioso.

Dialectics of Disenchantment: Devaluation of the Objective World— Revaluation of Subjective Religiosity

Max Weber was interested in the fate of religion precisely in the modern period, but he did not apply the concept of secularization for this. It is ‘disenchantment’ that occupies the central position in Weber's understanding of religious history. This paper addresses first the inherent connection between the section on religion in Max Weber's Economy and Society (titled ‘Religious Communities’ or ‘Sociology of Religion’) and his studies of The Economic Ethic of the World Religions. Second, it turns to Weber's concept of the process and consequences of disenchantment in these texts. Third, it traces the dialectics of disenchantment of religion in recent approaches to history, nature and society. There is a correspondence between progress in scientific knowledge and the bases of religion. Religions, divesting the world of magic and denying any inner-worldly salvation, change their own basis of existence. Religiosity takes on increasingly irrational relationships of meaning, such as ethical or mystical.

‘Anglicanism in a Bottle?’ Theological Implications of Sexualities Education for Anglican Ordinands

This article develops the initial findings of the small-scale research project Mind the Gap to ask what theological insights might be drawn from this enquiry into contemporary theological education for ordinands concerning sexualities. Three areas are suggested: the relationship between theology and other disciplines in the interrogation of human behaviour (including the theological understanding of lived experience); a further investigation of identity, authority and power; a response to the concept of ‘theological capital’ in terms of sexualities. The authors conclude that embodied theologies of desire may connect more healthily the abstract and the (sexually) concrete, as well as renewing tired secular concepts with new Christian insights. Ordinands are encouraged to engage cognitively at a meta-level in analysing and appreciating differences, of which they are already aware from their pastoral practice.

Who ever said that the Nativity Scene was religious?

France has officially been a secular state since the enactment of the French law on the separation of the churches and the state 1905 (‘the 1905 Act’),1 this separated the church from the state even though the word laïcité is not mentioned in the Act itself. In 1958, the concept of laïcité was finally introduced into the first article of the French Constitution stating that: ‘France shall be an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic’.2 Nonetheless, this concept outstandingly described as a ‘totem of the Republic’3 by the Dean Jean-Pierre Machelon, has never been legally defined. The Conseil d’État does recognize it as a constitutional principle4 that can be raised by any party in legal proceedings and it remains a fundamental principle of public services. Consequently, religious, political, or philosophical opinions cannot be regularly displayed on buildings owned by public authorities. It appears, however, from two recent cases, that practice clashes with theory by supporting a soft conception of secularism. The French Conseil d’État has ruled that a Christmas Nativity scene is not only part of Christian iconography but also a representation capable of embracing a plurality of meanings. When the manger scene reveals either a cultural, artistic, or festive nature, it has no particular religious significance and therefore can be legally displayed. The Court also established a presumption of illegality for manger scenes displayed inside buildings owned by the state or local public authorities or buildings allocated to public services, except where special circumstances exist.

Secularism in the Constitution of Bangladesh

ABSTRACTThe original 1972 Constitution of Bangladesh incorporated a provision for secularism. The 1979 Fifth Amendment deleted the principle of secularism and incorporated Bismillah-ar-Rahman-ar-Rahim (In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful). The 1988 Eighth Amendment declared Islam to be the official state religion. The High Court Division (HCD) of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh declared the removal of secularism from the Constitution illegal in 2005. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh upheld the decision of the HCD and the Constitution was amended in 2011 by the Parliament so that the provision for secularism was restored. The Constitution still lists the state religion as Islam and retains the declaration Bismillah-ar-Rahman-ar-Rahim, but these inclusions have been deeply controversial. This article will examine the concept of secularism as it is understood in Bangladesh and the implications of the concept of secularism for the constitutionality of Bismillah-ar-Rahman-ar-Rahim and the state religion Islam provisions. The article argues that there is no contradiction between the concept of secularism and these inclusions in the Constitution because they operate merely as an acknowledgement of Bangladesh's status as a Muslim majority country and do not, in practice, undermine the constitutional guarantees of equal rights and protection of all citizens including religious minorities.

Гендерна культура ортодоксального та модерністського юдаїзму

Статтю присвячено проблемі співвідношення ортодоксально-традиційних та модерністських засад в гендерній культурі юдаїзму. Підводячи підсумки проведеного дослідження, автор відзначає, що гендерні відносини в конкретній релігійній громаді багато в чому залежать від гендерної системи суспільства країни перебування. Гендерний режим релігійної громади запозичує моделі гендерно-статевих відносин, спілкування, зразків поведінки. Провідниками запозичень і їх адаптерами нерідко стають самі члени громади. Безпосередньо через їх практики і через практики їхніх сімей відбувається іноваціонування громад, їх гендерної ідеології і релігійних інституцій.Вищеперераховані практики включають в себе поняття релігійної і світської ідентичностей, сексуальності, влади, релігійної і світської освіти й інші категорії, які безпосередньо пов’язані з поняттями гендеру і гендерних відносин. При цьому особливості гендерного позиціювання істотно різняться в патріархальній та егалітарній гендерній культурах. Гендерна ідентичність юдеїв в патріархальних культурах припускає міксування релігійних та світських уявлень про гендерні ролі. Позиціонування патріархально-релігійного укладу стикається з практиками в повсякденному житті. Найбільш помітним це перетинання стає в сексуальному житті, кар’єрній активності і сімейних стратегіях жінок. Протиріччя між гендерним позиціонуванням і практиками нерідко веде до виникнення почуття провини у членів юдейських громад в патріархальних гендерних культурах суспільства оточення, яке стає частиною їх гендерної ідентичності. У той же час значна кількість практик, не схвалюваних юдаїзмом, знаходять підтримку в гендерних культурах патріархальних суспільств, що веде до розуміння цих практик як легітимних і в рамках релігійних громад. Це твердження стосується, зокрема, індивідуальних практик вивчення жінками священних текстів.В суспільствах з егалітарною гендерною культурою гендерної етнічно-релігійної ідентичності представникам ортодоксального юдаїзму маловластиві патріархальні уявлення про жіночі ролі. Протягом останніх десятиліть їх гендерна ідентичність в контексті релігійності і поза нею розвивалася більш односпрямовано. Навіть у дуже релігійних жінок поняття релігії є слабко пов’язаним з поняттями патріархату і підлеглим становищем жінок. Результати цих змін помітнимі при реалізації індивідуальних світських і релігійних практик жінками-членами громад. Спільною рисою гендерної ідентичності жінок як в патріархальних, так і в егалітарних гендерних культурах стає визначення себе як сильної статі на противагу традиційним гендерним стереотипам щодо жіночої слабкості.

Rights of Minorities to Establish and Administer Educational Institutions in India: Some Constitutional Reflections

Minority rights have been accepted into the cannons of both the international human rights law and the constitutional laws in most of the post-colonial nation States. Minorities world over – religious, linguistic and ethnic – have been constitutionally recognized as groups needing special protection and safeguards from the majoritarian attitudes or policies of discrimination towards their legitimate interests. Indian Constitutional law is one of the best in the world to provide a detailed catalogue of human rights to which every individual, including those belonging to religious and linguistic minorities, is entitled to enjoy without any discrimination. Besides this, every minority group enjoys religious, linguistic, cultural and educational rights. This paper deals with the rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions under the Constitution of India. It explores the Constituent Assembly debates and text of the Indian Constitution on Article 30, which grants minorities right to establish their own educational institutions. Further,the paper looks into the various Supreme Court decisions on the subject in order to better understand the jurisprudence of this fundamental right. The debate in the Constituent Assembly was full of containment as the draft articles on the minority educational institutions were criticized as being group rights and were argued as being against the concept of democracy, justice, and secularism. Also, it was feared by some that it might underpin the national unity. This is one of the reasons behind ambiguous nature of this provision. The biggest loophole of this provision is that it does not define the term “minority”. Despite these problems,the paper argues that Article 30 offers an important space to the minorities to shape their educational situation in accordance to their desires and should be encouraged as it helps the State in dealing with culture-specific factors behind their educational backwardness.

Multiculturalism and secularism: Theoretical understandings and possible conflicts

Multiculturalism in a European context increasingly has come to denote a concern with religious minorities. Claims for multicultural accommodation of minorities therefore potentially conflict with secularist requirements of separation of politics and religion. Whether there is a conflict depends on the general understandings of multiculturalism and secularism. The paper therefore distinguishes and examines different general understandings. Both multiculturalism and secularism can be understood as sets of policies, or as forms of minority accommodation or views about the relationship between religion and politics defined in relation to liberalism. Both understandings are problematic, so the paper proposes alternative formal understandings of multiculturalism and secularism. Multiculturalism denotes interpretations of what underlying (often liberal) principles imply under new circumstances of diversity. Secularism denotes what such principles imply for the relationship between politics and religion. Such formal understandings provide theoretical frameworks for specifying different conceptions of multiculturalism and secularism and for determining in precisely which respects conflicts might arise. But the frameworks also indicate that conflicts are not general or necessarily fundamental, and they provide tools for reinterpreting conceptions in ways that might avoid apparent conflicts.