Religion In Secular Society Research Articles

"Geen vlerke stut meer ...": Geselekteerde gedigte in Krog se mede-wete gelees as outobiografiese postsekulêre laatwerk

In Antjie Krog se bundel mede-wete verskyn 'n aantal gedigte waarin die ek-spreker se soeke na 'n nuwe soort spiritualiteit verwoord word en waarin die implisiete versugting na die eenheid van alle dinge voorkom. Die doel van hierdie artikel is om 'n teoretiese konsep aan die hand te doen waarvolgens die spirituele aspekte in hierdie bundel bespreek kan word. Teorieë oor outobiografie as spirituele praktyk, veral in die digter se laatwerk, sowel as postsekularisme en ekopsigologie sal vir hierdie doel ingespan word. Daar sal hoofsaaklik eksemplaries te werk gegaan word deurdat enkele kerngedigte in die bundel ontleed word, te wete "moniaal", " 'n eland staan by 'n kuil", "ongelowig is nie die regte woord nie" en "kerssonnet". Daar word aangetoon op welke wyse Krog kategorieë of gehele wat in moderne tye hulle relevansie verloor het, poëties nuut verwoord deur te fokus op die verbeelding van 'n groter geheel waarin plante, diere en mense interverbonde is en interafhanklik van mekaar bestaan. Sodoende word die grense van die paradigma van egosentrisme waarin moderne mense verval het, opgehef en bestaande religieuse grense word deurbreek deurdat holisme op kreatiewe wyse as nuwe werklikheid daargestel word.

Book Review: Renewing the Relevance of Bryan R. Wilson’s Secularization Thesis: Bryan R. Wilson (ed. Steve Bruce), Religion in Secular Society: Fifty Years On

Book Review: Renewing the Relevance of Bryan R. Wilson’s Secularization Thesis: Bryan R. Wilson (ed. Steve Bruce), <i>Religion in Secular Society: Fifty Years On</i>

Religion in Secular Society: Fifty Years On, by BRYAN R. WILSON, edited by STEVE BRUCE

Religion in Secular Society: Fifty Years On, by BRYAN R. WILSON, edited by STEVE BRUCE

Beyond Extremism

Seeking to move beyond language of “extremism”, this article discusses some of the promises and perils of Muslim-Christian dialogue in an era after September 11, 2001. The author advocates for the public face of religion in secular societies, assesses several recent developments in Muslim-Christian engagements, and proposes steps for opening up a more fruitful contemporary collaboration between Muslims and Christians. Written from a Christian perspective, the article concludes by arguing for “dialogical openness” as a hopeful path toward interfaith mutuality.

Post-Secularity and Religion in Britain: An Empirical Assessment

In the almost half-century since Bryan Wilson published Religion in Secular Society, the secularisation paradigm has gone from take-for-granted orthodoxy to passé intellectual dead-end. It is now common to talk of post-secular Europe and de-secularisation. This article presents a very large body of data to demonstrate that despite the change in intellectual fashion, secularisation continues apace in Britain. Religion has become more contentious; it has not become more popular.

The Effects of Education on Americans’ Religious Practices, Beliefs, and Affiliations

I challenge the scholarly contention that increases in education uniformly lead to declines in religious participation, belief, and affiliation. I argue that education influences strategies of action, and these strategies of action are relevant to some religious beliefs and activities but not others. Analysis of survey data shows that (1) education negatively affects exclusivist religious viewpoints and biblical literalism but not belief in God or the afterlife; (2) education positively affects religious participation, devotional activities, and emphasizing the importance of religion in daily life; (3) education positively affects switching religious affiliations, particularly to a mainline Protestant denomination, but not disaffiliation; (4) education is positively associated with questioning the role of religion in secular society but not with support for curbing the public opinions of religious leaders; and (5) the effects of education on religious beliefs and participation vary across religious traditions. Education does influence Americans’ religious beliefs and activities, but the effects of education on religion are complex.

Where did Nazism come from? Tibet?

The interview revolves around the idea that Al Qaeda is a distinctively modern phenomenon dependent upon modern and Western ideas of transformation of the human condition through mass violence. Meanwhile, the USA and Europe are deeply superstitious about their own unique position in the world. Professor John Gray outlines a clash of modernisms, the one not less ambitious or global in nature than the other. He applies an analysis of modernity upon present phenomena such as the war in Iraq, the failed EU constitution, the debate about Muslims and more broadly religion in secular societies, etc., and sketches an alternative path for the West than the present liberal revolutionary; a path informed by an awareness of limitations.

The Relevance of Religion: Iceland and Secularization Theory

in Iceland provides the focus for a historical-comparative and participant observation study of the supposed of religion in secular society. judgment of irrelevance appears to depend largely on a peculiar definitional construct, formed with little immediate connection to the experience of the participants in the system. A situational definition grounded in the participants' understandings of their own actions produces a rather different assessment of the religio-social systems under investigation. When people act in ways they define as religious, religion must be accepted as real for social-scientific analysis. On this basis judgments of the irrelevance of Scandinavian religion are premature and one-sided, with predefined functions of religion in society skewing both research and theory. A bout a decade-and-a-half ago, Richard Tomasson published an article entitled Religion is Irrelevant in Sweden, based on his considerable field research there (1968; see 1970). More recently he has published a monograph on Iceland (1980), in which he offers a similar analysis. Subtitled The First New Society, this book draws general theoretical inspiration from S. M. Lipset's synthetic work First New Nation and carries an introduction by him. In his own earlier book Political Man Lipset had cited Icelandic politics particularly its communist party - as an example of political sectarianism acting as a functional alternative to traditional religion. In a similar vein, Sigurdur Magniisson (1977) writes: Even though the Icelanders care little about Christianity and organized religion, they are still an essentially religious people in a more general sense (165). appearance of Petursson's monograph on religion and society in Iceland from 1830-1930 (1983) also brings this setting to particular prominence.