Role Of Religion In Society Research Articles

Globalization and Religion The Emergence of Fundamental Movements

Globalization broadly refers to the condi- tion of complex connectivity evident in the world today, seen in terms of both the compression of the world and the intensification of global consciousness. Some theorists hold that Globalization has been occurring throughout history, only its form has changed over the different historical periods. Sociologists of the classical period had identified globalizing solvents in terms of capitalist commodification (Marx), differentiation (Durkheim) and rationalization (Weber). In contemporary sociological theory, Globalization is seen largely through the mediating category of Modernity (Robertson, Giddens, Wallerstein). Religion has played a significant role in the process of Globalization, initially through the expansion of the world religions of Islam and Christianity, and later through the secularization processes in Protestantism. Recent developments are however challenging the secularization thesis. What is instead being observed is the resurgence of religion in terms of what are being generally called Fundamentalist movements. These Fundamentalist Movements can be categorized into (a) the emergence of New Religious Movements and (b) the wave of Religious Nationalist movements. Niklas Luhmann holds that the globalization of society, while structurally favouring privatization of religion, provides fertile ground for the renewed public influence of religion. What is the future role of religion in society?

One King, One Faith: The Parlement of Paris and the Religious Reformations of the Sixteenth Century.

This book, the culmination of a lifelong career in French history, tackles head-on the central question of the French Religious Wars: Why did France prove so consistently hostile and resistant to Protetantism? Distinguished scholar Nancy Lyman Roelker claims that what ultimately motivated the passion and violence of the civil wars was religion. She demonstrates that not only the body politic but also the body social was defined by Gallican Catholicism. Roelker underscores the role the Parliament played in shaping and safeguarding the social, as well as the political, order. Her study is based on extensive research in the correspond-ence, memoirs, and tracts of mainstream Catholic magistrates as well as dissenters. It creates an overview of the "mentalites" of the Parliament, analyses religious attitudes toward major events of the period, and examines the Parliament's role in the triumph of Henri IV. Along the way, it sheds light on the inner workings of the Parliament and other political institutions, on social structures, and on collective ideas. And above all, this distinguished work brilliantly illuminates the role of religion in society and the state. It will be the definitive work on the subject for many years to come.

What's Wrong with the Williamsburg Charter

“In … recent times, … constitutional jurisprudence has tended, in the view of many, to move toward the de facto semi-establishment of a wholly secular understanding of the origin, nature and destiny of humankind and of the American nation. During this period, the exclusion of teaching about the role of religion in society, based partly upon a misunderstanding of First Amendment decisions, has ironically resulted in giving a dominant status to such wholly secular understandings in many national institutions.”— The Williamsburg CharterThe Williamsburg Charter rightly focuses attention on the American contribution to religious liberty, which is a part of our Constitutional heritage. It has the virtue of trying to achieve consensus around issues of deep disagreement in various religious, education and political communities. For this reason, it makes a significant beginning in our thinking about religious pluralism.It is not, of course, a perfect document and therefore needs critical evaluation. The original Constitution itself, although hailed in the opening paragraphs of the Charter as “the most wonderful work,” is not without its flaws. For example, the original Constitution tolerated human slavery and indentured service, and it limited the franchise to white, property-owning males.

Editorial: The Prophetic Role of Religion in Society

IVIore than thirty years ago, Reinhold Niebuhr wrote a perceptive analysis of American republic to which he gave provocative title, The Irony of American History. Nowhere is this irony of American history more evident than in role of religion played in a republic conceived and founded as a secular On one hand, important social and political role played by religion in American society has been widely recognized by both American and European observers throughout this nation's history. On other hand, United States has been frequently described as the oldest secular and, indeed, the most thoroughgoing, if not only truly secular state. A few years after his book on American history, Niebuhr addressed this particular paradox in a volume of essays published under title of Pious and Secular America, in which he argued that America was more secular than any other nation, but also was more religious. To anyone unacquainted with American history, such affirmations would appear to be in conflict and totally irreconcilable. Any characterization of America as a secular state would suggest to many, in absence of acquaintance with American history, that religion is in some way limited only to private sphere and, therefore, isolated from currents of American public life or body politic— that role of churches and synagogues, as well as religion in general, is relegated to essentially personal and private concerns of American citizens. Such an impression, however, would be completely contrary to reality of American experience.

Religion in Sociological Perspective

PART ONE Introduction to the Sociology of Religion Chapter 1. What Do We Mean by the Term Religion? Chapter 2. A Scientific Perspective on Religion PART TWO The Complexity of Religious Systems: Integration and Conflict Chapter 3. The Role of Religion in Society: Macro Perspectives Chapter 4. Religious Experience, Symbol Systems, and World Views PART THREE Religion in the Lives of Individuals Chapter 5. Becoming and Being Religious Chapter 6. Conversion and Switching PART FOUR Formation and Maintenance of Religious Organizations Chapter 7. Organized Religion: Churches, Sects, and Cults Chapter 8. The Denominational Society PART FIVE Religion and Social Inequality Chapter 10. Religion and Racism Chapter 11. Religion, Gender, and Sexuality Chapter 12. Religion, Inequality, and Social Activism PART SIX Social Change and Religious Adaptation Chapter 13. Secularization: Religion in Decline or in Transformation? Chapter 14. Religion Outside the (God) Box Chapter 15. Religion and Globalization EPILOGUE The Sociological Perspective on Religion: A Concluding Comment

Finansowanie Kościołów i związków wyznaniowych ze środków publicznych

Public funding of churches and religious associations in Poland: Analysis of political debates on the liquidation of the Church Property Commission and the Church Fund
 The paper contains a case study of the political debate concerning public funding for the religious institutions. It deals with the parliamentary discussions in the years 2004‑2015 on the abolishing of two public bodies: Church Property Commission (Komisja Majątkowa) and Church Fund (Fundusz Kościelny). The paper has two main objectives. First of them is providing the description of the debate (most important themes in the discourse, argumentative strategies, rhetorical instruments used by the interlocutors). The characteristics of the discourse let us draw a picture of the social relations and the place of religion in the public sphere. Therefore, the second objective of the paper is to describe the dominant narratives in the public debate on the role of religion in society and the state.

Civil Religion

“Civil Religion,” a term first coined by Jean Jacques Rousseau, fits Durkheim's contention that religious and social experience are co-terminous. Civil religion points to the religious dimension of the polity. It is essential to inspect the reality of civil religion to settle two, long-standing, debates—the one about the wisdom of separation of church and state; the other, about the integrative or divisive role of religion in society. Civil religion evolves in western society. The pattern of evolution follows a three-fold phase: undifferentiation, state sponsorship in the period of modernization, differentiation. Cross cultural comparisons of Japan, Imperial Rome, The Soviet Union, Turkey, France and The United States uncovers comparative costs and advantages of each phase of evolution.

The Balkcom Case (1782) and the Pietistic Theory of Separation of Church and State

Fifty years before the date conventionally assigned for the separation of church and state in Massachusetts a court decision in effect disestablished the old Puritan ecclesiastical system. But the decision in the Balkcom Case, though recognized by the attorney general of the state and all others concerned as of crucial importance, has been almost totally neglected by historians. The Baptists in I783 publicly hailed the decision as the culmination of their long fight for religious liberty in New England. It preceded by three years the passage of Jefferson's famous bill for religious liberty in Virginia. Had the precedent set by the Balkcom Case been followed perhaps Isaac Backus and Massachusetts rather than James Madison and Virginia would now be enshrined in history books as the source of the unique American principle of separation. And perhaps the pietistic theory of separation would have prevailed over the deistic in American constitutional law. The reasons why this case should not have been neglected deserve some attention. The Balkcom Case was a test case under the newly adopted state constitution of I780. Unlike the famous Quok Walker Case, which now appears not to have been based upon constitutional issues,1 the Balkcom Case was acknowledged throughout to hinge upon the courts' interpretation of Article Three of the Declaration of Rights which was an integral part of the Massachusetts constitution. This article, which John Adams had found too difficult to write in his preliminary draft, concerned the role of religion in society and the relationship of one sect to another. It was a compromise article which attempted to satisfy both those who wanted to continue the old Puritan tradition of an established tax-supported church system and those who wanted a voluntaristic church system. It satisfied neither group and was the most hotly debated article in the newspaper