Role Of Religion In Society Research Articles

Social Services Offered by Faith-Based Organizations in the Post-Secular Society

Christian ethics of care has its roots in evangelical teachings and consists in helping the poor, the suffering, the prisoner, the orphan, the old people, the widows and, in general, the one who is humble, experiencing incapacity. A series of papers show that, at global level, 90% of charitable staff work as an employee or volunteer in religious organizations or faith-based organizations (Crisp, 2014: 11). Recognizing the social importance of the activity underwent in faith-based organizations comes in the context of reconsidering the role of religion in society and recognizing the failure of complete separation between secular society and religion, in the context of a post-secular society (Barbato & Kratochvil, 2008; Habermas, Blair, & Debray, 2017).

“Religion Teaches Peace and Harmony”

Abstract As an organization working in a context that seems increasingly Islamized and marked by religious conflict, the Christian Study Centre (CSC) in Rawalpindi has tasked itself with facilitating “interfaith harmony” and “co-existence” between Christians and Muslims. The organization has a large and diverse network of Christian, Muslim and non-affiliated partner organizations, groups and actors, who participate in CSC’s interreligious dialogue activities. These participants differ from CSC in their perceptions about the role of religion in society at large and in facilitating interreligious coexistence in particular. As a result, the participants bring a variety of, sometimes opposing, expectations and attitudes to the interreligious dialogue encounter. In order to facilitate harmony and peace in its dialogue activities CSC carefully navigates the communication about religious identity between Christians and Muslims. This article will explore the strategies employed by CSC to navigate communication about religious identity in interreligious dialogue.

Redefining the Role of Religion in Contemporary Society: Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad al-Tayyeb

This paper discusses the position of religion in contemporary society by examining the religious thoughts of two prominent religious leaders: Pope Francis from the Catholic Church and Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad al-Tayyeb from Al-Azhar University, Egypt. The meeting between Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad al-Tayyeb in Abu Dhabi (February 2019) is a starting point for understanding the process by which the two religious leaders redefined the role of religion in society. Moreover, their responses to contemporary social issues such as terrorism, ecological crisis, war, and social injustices also show how they redefined the role of religion. While each religious leader formulates theological account into its religious tradition, it is obvious that the role of religion for social transformation and humanity is shown to be the central concern of the two religious’ leaders. The two religious traditions go further to put religion as a fundamental agent for society transformation.

Protest and prayer: the Jewish and Catholic presence at Selma

PurposeThe recent motion picture Selma infused fresh interest – and controversy – into the political and emotional peak of America’s modern Civil Rights Movement. Ava DuVernay, the film’s director, faced criticism for her exclusion of the Jewish presence from the movie’s portrayal of the March 21, 1965 Voting Rights March. The recent attention presents a teachable moment and new energy for thinking deeply about this pivotal event in America’s past. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThe authors provide valuable historical domain knowledge surrounding the 1965 Voting Rights March, present the requisite plans and curriculum resources for implementing wise-practice instructional strategies, and explore the rationale underpinning the inquiry-based activities.FindingsThe authors share innovative approaches, at the secondary and elementary levels, integrating historical domain knowledge with renewed interest in the 1965 Voting Rights March to create powerful teaching-and-learning experiences. The approaches are innovative because they contain dynamic curriculum materials and reflect wise-practice use of historical photographs within the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards.Practical implicationsThe approaches shared here are centered around questioning, a key to student learning. The lessons feature the development of questions, both from teachers and students, as classes work collaboratively to interpret a potentially powerful historical photograph and use historical events to practice thinking deeply about important topics.Originality/valueSocial studies classrooms are ideal educational spaces to develop and practice the analytical skills and dispositions students need to meet the challenge of critiquing visual information that concerns complex public issues, such as the role of religion in society.

Десекуляризация как феномен рубежа XX–XXI веков

In the article the authors note that since the 1970s, with the rise of the Islamic movement and the Islamic revolution in Iran, philosophers and political scientists started to talk about religious renaissance in many regions of the world. In addition, the point at issue is the growing role of religion in society, including European countries that have long ago gone through the process of secularization. The reasons for this phenomenon, regardless of its name, are diverse, but understandable: secular ideologies of the last century failed to explain the existing social problems and give them a rational alternative.

The Transfer of Religiousness in the Family from Parents to Children: An Analytical Review of Studies

The growing interest towards studying the impact of religion on various spheres of social life is reflected in quite large corpus of academic publications. Yet, the reproduction of religious identity on the level of individuals and small social groups is not much covered by Russian sociology of religion. The matter of the connection between religion and parenthood in Russian society becomes urgent due to the current transformations in Post-Soviet society: the first generation of believers is added and gradually being substituted by the second and third generations of believers. The representatives of these generations differ as it comes to the character of religious socialization that it is linked either to individual conversion or reproduction of religiosity. The given article represents the review of modern empirical studies of transmission of religion from parents to children. In our analysis we mostly refer to the results of foreign studies and are focused on the description of the results of reproduction of religiosity in family regardless of religious or confessional belonging. The analysis has indicated that family serves as one of the key agents of religious socialization of children and teenagers along with their peers and school. The review also focuses on the description of the factors that determine religiosity of children whose parents are believers. The authors also note the differences between religious and non-religious families are characterized relations between spouses and children, subjective wellbeing of children and styles of parenting. Attention is also paid to external factors determining family religiosity: cultural context, place and role of religion in society.

Religious Identity and National Conflict in the 20th Century Indonesia

This study attempts to discuss on how religious identities contribute to or was in conflict with the emerging national identities, with focusing issue on the struggle of Islam in its relation to Indonesian identity as a multi-religious nation and Pancasila state. Based on the critical analysis from the various literature, the result of the study showed that Islam did both contribute and was in conflict with the Indonesian national identity. The Islamist fights for the Islamic state, the nationalist defends Pancasila state. As long as Islam is the majority in Indonesia and as long as there is diversity in Islam, especially in the interpretation of Islam and the state, Indonesian national identity will always be in conflict between Pancasila state and Islamic state. Even though, the role of religion in society and nation change is very significant. The Islamist is always there, although it is not always permanent in certain organizations. In the past, NU and Muhammadiyah were considered as Islamist, but today they are nationalist. At the same time, new Islamist organizations and parties emerge to continue their Islamist spirit. Keywords: Islam, Religious identity, Pancasila,Â

Kooperationen am Lernort Schule und interreligiöse Kompe-tenzen im islamischen Religionsunterricht

With the so-called stable third of the non-religious, with new religions, but also with the presence of Islam in Germany due to immigration, society is becoming increasingly plural. Although denominational ties are decreasing, questions about the place and role of religion in society remain extremely topical and important. One main question is how schools can prepare pupils for tolerant cooperation and openness in society, precisely because diversity is of course already present in the school setting. Another key question is if – given these framework condi-tions – the denominational-based religion class can remain the means of choice. The article takes up two lines of inquiry: firstly, it aims to present the possibilities of cooperation within the denominational formats of religious education and look at the options of non-denominational formats for lessons; secondly, the possibilities and chances of interreligious learning and skills acquisition in Islamic religion classes are examined.

The Sacred Orders of Finnish Political Discourse on the Revision of the Blasphemy Law

This article examines how Finnish politicians constructed the legal protection of religion and the relationship between religion and society during the process of revising the blasphemy and religious insult sections of the Finnish criminal code in the late 1990s. In doing so, it analyzes their discourses on religion and the sacred. It identifies two “sacred orders” in these discourses. One is a “secular sacred order,” concerned with the defense of religious plurality, secular progress, and the principles of public order and freedom of religion. The other is a “Christian sacred order”; it defends Finnish national and cultural identity, is connected to the national form of Christianity, and refers explicitly to the Christian God. These orders represent different views on the role of religion in society but, as the article shows, during the legislative process proponents of both invoked a category of religion that presumed a Christian prototype. Based on this analysis, the article suggests that theories utilizing the Durkheimian notion of the sacred should take into account issues of power, the nature of sacred things as social constructions and thus variable, and the existence of hierarchical relationships between different sacred things.

Взаимодействие дискурсов науки и религии в период перестройки (на материалах журнала «Наука и религия»)

The article centres attention on the interaction of science and religion during perestroika, which formed various discourses — atheistic, religious and scientific. Discourse analysis of the journal «Nauka i religiya» (Science and Religion) for 1985-1991 years helped to understand the features of the transformation of mass consciousness and worldview in combination with models of behaviour in state-confessional relations (scientists, agitators, believers, clergymen). Religious discourse consists of such topics as problems of the image of a believer, types of religiosity, and the role of religion in society. Analyses of the scientific discourse confines attention strictly to the problem of scientific morality, esp. morality of the scientist.

Қазақ мәдениеті және ислам діні

The article talks about the mutual interweaving of the traditions of the Kazakh people that existedfrom time immemorial with the Muslim faith. Any religion is aimed at serving humanity. The main roleof religion in society is the education of morality, the spread of the foundations of humanism in society.It is noted that the Kazakh people have a peculiar culture. Nomadic way of life taught our people to becloser to nature, to understand its secrets, to appreciate and respect. It is known that the main value intraditional Kazakh society is the respect of a person. Culture and religion are close concepts. The culturalbasis of man is strengthened by religion. Correct understanding and explanation of religion, in turn,develops culture. The main purpose of the article is to understand the influence and significance of theIslamic religion in the development of national values, to raise the national spirit of the Kazakh people.The definition of the role of zhyrau in the spread of religion among the people, the performance of ideologyand the strengthening of national unity. Along with this, the education of the younger generation,instruction on the true path, respect for traditions through understanding the works of Abai, Shakarim,representatives of the Alash intelligentsia. National values, raising the national spirit. The authors cometo the conclusion that such concepts as terrorism, extremism, which run counter to Islamic ideology, arealien to the essence of the Kazakh people.

“Entrance Free—we are Looking Forward to your Visit!”: Public Events as Strategies of Legitimisation in Immigrant Religious Organisations

Public events by immigrant religious organisations are a fairly new phenomenon in European societies. This article analyses and compares two such events: Diwali Mela, the Hindu festival of lights, and the Open Mosque Day organised by Muslim umbrella organisations. Using basic concepts of new institutional theory, we will show how immigrant religious organisations adopt established event formats and translate them into their own context. Interestingly, different factors influence the way they present themselves and their religious tradition at the public event. Three of these factors are of major impact: the secular image of the role of religion in society, the discourse about Islam and Hinduism, and finally the organisations’ own religious concepts. We argue that the action generated out of this leads to the masking of two major aspects of religion: the rites and the believers.

Religious engagement and attitudes to the role of religion in society: their effect on civic and social values in an Asian context

This paper explored the impact of religious engagement (religious background, religious service attendance and religious activities participation) on adolescents’ civic and social values. Attitudes towards the influence of religion on society were investigated as a possible mediator/moderator of religious engagement. A model based on Western literature was tested using a sample of over 2000 Hong Kong students. Secondary data were drawn from the International Civics and Citizenship Education Study 2009. Multi-level modelling was used to assess individual and school level effects on civic and social values. Results indicated that religious engagement exerted varied effects. Religious background showed small and negative effects on students’ civic and social values. Participation in religious services indicated a small, positive and significant effect on social but not on civic values. Participation in religious activities showed no significant effect on either social or civic values. These variables exerted a small moderating effect on social and civic values through attitudes to the influence of religion on society. The latter exerted a positive and significant effect on civic values and a negative effect on social values. These results suggested that Western models depicting the positive relationship between religious engagement and citizenship values may not hold for Asian societies.

Post-Islamism and fields of contention after the Arab Spring: feminism, Salafism and the revolutionary youth

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, conflicts in Egypt and Tunisia over the authority to rule and the role of religion in society raised questions about these societies’ capacity for reconciling differences. In retrospect, the conflicts also raise questions about the theoretical tools used to analyse regional developments. In particular, the ‘post-Islamism’ thesis has significantly changed the debates on ‘Islam and democracy’ by bringing to light the changing opportunity structures, and changed goals, of Islamist movements. However, this paper argues that the theory underestimates differences within post-Islamist societies. Drawing on field theory, the paper shows how the actual content of post-Islamism is contingent on political struggle. It focuses on three fields whose political roles have been underestimated or misrepresented by post-Islamist theorists: Islamic feminism, Salafist-jihadism and the revolutionary youth. Their respective forms of capital – sources of legitimacy and social recognition – give important clues for understanding the stakes of the conflicts after the Arab Spring.

Book Review: Book Reviews

Prayer: Christian and Muslim Perspectives. Edited by David Marshall and Lucinda Mosher. A record of tenth Building Bridges Seminar, convened by Archbishop of Canterbury at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar, May 17-19, 2011. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2013. 228 pp. $26.95 (paper).Death, Resurrection, and Human Destiny: Christian and Muslim Perspectives. Edited by David Marshall and Lucinda Mosher. A record of eleventh Building Bridges Seminar, convened by Archbishop of Canterbury at King's College, London and Canterbury Cathedral, April 23-25, 2012. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2014. 312 pp. $26.95 (paper).Sin, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation: Christian and Muslim Perspectives. Edited by Lucinda Mosher and David Marshall. A record of thirteenth Building Bridges Seminar hosted by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., April 27-30, 2014. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2016.176 pp. $26.95 (paper).These volumes represent latest in a series published by Georgetown University Press documenting Building Bridges Seminars conducted by Anglican Church and its partners. The seminars were initiated in January 2002 by George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, and continued under direction of Rowan Williams, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 until 2012. The topics covered in these seminars range from discussions about sacred texts, prophecy, theological anthropology, secularism, modernity, role of religion in society, justice, human rights, common good, and dialogue between religion and science. They were hosted by Christian and Muslim centers or universities across globe.This review addresses Building Bridges Seminars held in 2011, 2012, and 2014, which were devoted to topics of prayer, eschatology, and sin. The books reflect organization of two-day seminar, with first day consisting of public presentations and second day of in-depth discussions among scholars. Thus part one of text begins with Muslim and Christian theological surveys on topic with responses by alternate scholars. The second day's material consists of scriptural texts and commentaries, along with writings of important figures from each faith tradition. Additionally, some seminars offered essays about faith practices, pastoral ministry, and personal reflections about topics. Each text includes an introduction and conclusion by editors David Marshall and Lucinda Mosher, and most of volumes also include a preface and afterword by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. These insightful pieces serve as a guide through texts because they surface critical questions and key points explored by dialogues.Prayer: Christian and Muslim PerspectivesThis volume begins with contributions about theology of and then moves to descriptions of various forms of prayer, relationship between formal ritual and private devotional prayer, and formative dimensions of prayer. Michael Plekon begins by stating that for Christians the point of is love-God's limitless, forgiving, wildly compassionate love, and as our response to God's love and compassion for us prayer always opens us up to God, to ourselves, and to others (p. 5). Prayer is not an escape but an encounter with God that is origin of a life of and service. Accordingly we do not say prayers, but live them. From Muslim perspective, Reza Shah-Kazemi says that is an expression of gratitude, for essence of is remembrance of God's infinite mercy. And as Prophet taught, such purity and devotion in becomes a source of blessing to all.The first day lectures include two provocative pieces: Muslim scholar Caner Dagli reflects on Christian and Christian scholar Daniel Madigan writes about Muslim prayer. Dagli's essay draws some interesting parallels between Christian definition of sacrament and Islamic worship. …

Religious Organizations and Social Transformations in Ukraine: New Vectors of Mutual Influences

The modern role of religion in society proves that, in a world-view and institutional manifestation, it is capable of performing and successfully fulfilling the functions of social and political consolidation. Church institutions have long been not only present in public life, but often have a direct influence on the activity of power structures. Religious organizations take a direct part in political life, through their influence, widely involve various secular organizations, and sometimes even create them, for the fulfillment of socio-political tasks.

The role of religion in the Dutch Scout Movement (1911-1973)

This article investigates the role of religion in the organisational history of the Scout Movement in the Netherlands, from 1911 until 1973. When Scouting was first introduced in the Netherlands, it had to be adapted to a ‘pillarising’ society. Members of the liberal community welcomed the Scout Movement in the Netherlands as a means to instil a sense of patriotism and national belonging in the Dutch youth, but faced a protracted struggle over the inclusion of a mandatory reference to God in the Scout Promise. Catholic and Protestant religious communities formed their own and separate Scout associations. Scouting functioned as a de facto ‘light community’, bridging denominational gaps and uniting all Dutch Scouts on the basis of a shared method. However, the unitary national organisation, Scouting Nederland, was only founded in 1973, after Catholics and Protestants themselves redefined the role of religion in society and in their youth organisations.

There be dragons: effects of unexplored religion on nurses' competence in spiritual care.

On ancient maps unexplored lands were simply labeled 'there be dragons' indicating the fear that attends the unknown. Despite three decades of theoretical and empirical work on spirituality in nursing, evidence still suggests that nurses do not feel competent to engage in spiritual care. In this paper I propose that one of the reasons for this is a theory-theory gap between religion and spirituality. Generalized anxiety about the role of religion in society has led to under-theorizing in nursing about religious care. As a result, when religion and spirituality overlap at the point of care, nurses are left without the substantive knowledge required for practice. Robust religious theorizing should include thick accounts of lived religion and integrative work that enables nurses to understand commonalities across religions that are relevant to practice. As a starting point to this integrative work, nurses can be introduced to the nature and lexicon of lived religion, religious perspectives on suffering, and religious reasoning that holds meaning and mystery in tension. Such an approach will better prepare them for the realities of practice where the complexities of spirituality and religion come to play.

Post-pastoral? Rethinking religion and the reconstruction of rural space

The emergence of an extensive literature exploring the post-secularism in recent years has revived interest in the role of religion in society. However, such studies are overwhelmingly focussed on the urban experience, while the relationship between rurality and post-secularism remains largely unconsidered. Set against the back-drop of challenges to rural religious organization, such as redundant buildings, merged parishes, and lack of incumbents, this paper examines the endogenous actions of lay-people in sustaining religious services. Examining the examples of Church in Wales and Muslim worshippers in rural Wales, we argue that these actions constitute a ‘post-pastoral’ experience, which although maintaining religious identities, challenge the traditional community leadership roles associated with professional clerics. As a consequence, distinctions between urban and rural experiences of post-secular activities are revealed, suggesting that the potential for the countryside to experience similar involvement of faith-based organizations in benevolent action as the city is limited. This highlights the need for more attention on training and support for lay-people by religious organizations by both academics and policy formulators.

The consequences of religious strictness for political participation

Contemporary media portray highly religious Americans as active political conservatives. This article examines how church strictness influences political participation by churchgoers. We argue that church strictness influences aspects of a person's life that are known to influence political participation, so assessing the effect of religion on participation requires considering intermediate factors. To evaluate our theory, we analyze the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study, which focused on the role of religion in society. We develop a recursive model of political participation, using multiple imputation to address missingness in the survey. The results indicate that indirect effects of strictness—through civic involvement, income, and religious participation—mitigate the assumed direct effect of strictness upon political participation. We conclude that, although religious groups show political activism in some specific arenas, strict churches are not strong political mobilizers in general, as many media portrayals may lead one to believe.