Secular Society Research Articles

Pandangan Jürgen Habermas Tentang Iman dan Akal Budi dan Implikasinya bagi Diskursus Seputar Peran Publik Agama di Indonesia

This essay describes the most important aspects of the relationship between religion and the state, especially in the case of Indonesia. It argues that, on the one hand, religion and belonging to one’s religion should be acknowledged as a fundamental human right, and on the other, religion should also be protected by the state. Unfortunately, most of the time the state seems to prioritise religion over the people. As a result, minority groups may experience marginalisation, violence, and discrimination. In this regard, I will show that Habermas' view of the relation between reason and faith offers a cogent framework for structuring Indonesia's normative interaction between politics and religion. This paper makes the case that the state's function in the Indonesian pluralistic society is to ensure religious freedom rather than to defend religion. Habermas holds that religion in has a substantial role in the public sphere even in a secular society. On the other hand, religions in a pluralistic society must also learn to reconcile disparities of their core ethical and metaphysical ideas. As a result, religions living in Indonesia may contribute to uphold democracy, human rights, equality, and freedom.

Female rage, the politics of care, and ambivalence of liberal democracy in Bratya Basu's Creusa – The Queen

Bratya Basu's play, ‘Creusa – The Queen’ is an adaptation of Euripides’ Ion that centers Creusa and her experience. Basu's adaptation critiques not only the relationship between humans and gods like in Euripides’ original, but also the entanglement of religious and secular law, and the idea of the rational individual subject. By centering Creusa and her lived experience, Basu articulates an ambivalence towards traditional liberal democracy based on its reliance on the image of a rational individual subject that serves the image of the law rather than using the law to facilitate, develop, and reflect relations, experiences, and communities of care that make up the body politic. Through its use of suspense and focus on Creusa, the play challenges binaries still found in contemporary political theory such as emotional/rational, domestic/public, care/justice, female/male. In this essay we outline the erasure of women as liberal subjects, the affective turn in politics, and the role of Creusa's experience in the play in challenging the rational traditional subject as a model for an effective political subject. Ultimately, it is Creusa's certainty about and acceptance of the divine and secular orders that allow liberal democracy to survive, thus grounding the power of the project in Creusa's affective response.

Neither saintly nor psychotic: a narrative systematic review of the evolving Western perception of voice hearing.

We present a social-historical perspective on the evolution of the voice-hearing phenomenon in Western society. Based upon a systematic search from a selection of nine databases, we trace the way hearing voices has been understood throughout the ages. Originally, hearing voices was considered a gifted talent for accessing the divine, but the progressive influence of monotheistic religion gradually condemned the practice to social marginalization. Later, the medical and psychiatric professions of secular society were instrumental in attaching stigma to both voice hearers and the phenomenon itself, thereby reinforcing social exclusion. More recently, the re-integration of voice hearers into the community by health authorities in various countries appears to have provided a new, socially acceptable setting for the phenomenon.

INFLUENCE OF POLITICAL AND LEGISLATIVE INNOVATIONS OF THE XX-XXI CENTURIES ON RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF SOCIETY: EXPERIENCE OF CROSS-NATIONAL RESEARCH

In this publication the author, using a systemic-structural approach, methods of analysis and synthesis, methods of political-comparative analysis (cross-national and cross-temporal analysis), as well as logical, doctrinal and analytical interpretation of legal norms, makes an attempt to identify and disclose political and legislative innovations of the XX-XXI centuries and establishing the impact of such innovations on religious ideas of society. The political and legal features of atheistic and godless states are revealed, secular states of a democratic plan are characterized, an appeal is made to the historical experience and modern functioning of theocracies and religious states, the principles of freedom of conscience and freedom of religion in Russian and international law are outlined, and problematic aspects of the relationship between religion and extremism are highlighted. It is established that atheistic and godless states in their fight against religion use the same techniques, methods and ways, but the difference is that atheistic states provide themselves with legitimation as public entities that prohibit religion at the constitutional level, while the godless states carry out identical activities without a legal basis. It turns out that secular states of the liberal-democratic plan are the embodiment of the principle of non-interference of religious institutions in public policy, known back in the Middle Ages, and at the same time create a legal and factual basis for secularized societies, which in many ways are far from unshakable religious postulates. It is determined that the domestic legal system fully recognizes those interpretations of freedom of conscience and freedom of religion that are present in international law. It also reveals three lines of anti-extremist activity in the religious sphere in Russia: presumptive, preventive and prohibitive.

Spiritualité

Contemporary enthusiasm for spirituality is largely based on the opposition between religion and spirituality, which remains above all a construct of secularized societies of Christian heritage. The genealogy of the concept shows its historical articulation with established religious traditions, as well as its recent cultural and political appropriation. As a category of thought, the term refers to the experiential dimension of religion, as well as to lifestyles and ethical orientations, and is part of the reign of the self that characterizes postmodern societies. However, its epistemological indeterminacy poses a problem when considering phenomena outside the Western context.

Katolička akcija

The centuries–old model of the Church as a community of lay people and clerics who inspire and guide them was entering a functional crisis. In the era of revolutions and liberalism, the laity found itself in a new, contradictory position: at the same time, they are believers loyal to the Church and citizens loyal to secular society. Looking for a way out of the crisis, the Church relied on the democratic capacity of the laity, who promoted Christian values with their social presence, but also fought for the Church’s political rights. The organized Catholic laity had a specific role: to form, culturally and morally, the lay classes. The prehistory of the creation of the Catholic lay movement (Catholic Action) gives insights into the complexity of societies in the second half of the 19th, and the beginning of the 20th century, but also the high level of inventiveness of both the laity and the hierarchy in activating the laity, which will turn out to be an epoch–making success of the Church of the 20th century.

Indigenous Knowledge and Ontological Difference? Ontological Pluralism, Secular Public Reason, and Knowledge between Indigenous Amazonia and the West

AbstractReal knowledge emerges from “impossible” worldviews. Or, put differently, it is possible to accept knowledge that is produced by people whose ontological presuppositions–their baseline assumptions about the nature of reality–one entirely rejects. How can this fact be accommodated, not by advancing a wishful post-dualism, dangerous post-secularism, or implausible ontological relativism, but by working within the tradition of secular political philosophy so that indigenous knowledge, too, can be a basis for public policy and collective action in secular societies? Via a reframing Amazonian multinaturalist perspectivism–which has so inspired post-dualist civilizational critiques–as a social theory of health and illness that informs contemporary Western epidemiology’s struggles to theorize the distribution of health and illness in mass society, this article advances a general approach to recognizing knowledge that has been developed on the other side of boundaries of ontological difference. It argues that the accuracy or efficacy of any particular indigenous knowledge-practice implies the generative potential as theory of the ontological presuppositions that facilitated the knowledge-practice’s evolution. Combining the ontological turn’s interest in the innovativeness of indigenous concepts with a proposal for superseding its incommensurable worlds and abandonment of the aspiration to more-than-local knowledge, the article shows that indigenous ideas and their underlying ontologies are more than generic alternatives to inspire Western civilizational renewal, and opens a path to their legitimization as actionable knowledge in the terms of secular public reason.

Beyond Doubt: The Secularization of Society by Isabella Kasselstrand, Phil Zuckerman, and Ryan T. Cragun (review)

Beyond Doubt: The Secularization of Society by Isabella Kasselstrand, Phil Zuckerman, and Ryan T. Cragun (review)

Mobility from the Catholic Religion to the “without Religion” Identification in Young University Students in Chile

In recent years, Chile has experienced a highly significant abandonment of the Catholic church. This can be observed in young people, who have left its organizational spaces and their identification with it. The magnitude of this growing abandonment, which has been heighted by the public awareness of sexual abuse committed by priests, has been shown in quantitative studies, however, they do not delve into the reasons of those who distance themselves from the church. This article presents research results that identify the motivations expressed by young people that led them to stop being Catholic and places this phenomenon of disaffection within a bigger issue that has been occurring for some time: that of a religious mobility in an increasingly secular society, where the number of people who identify themselves as “without religion” continues to grow. By means of individual interviews, the reasons given by young people were identified and later validated in a subsequent group interview process.

The (Post)–Secular Political System and Model of Virtue

U radu je prikazano istraživanje promjene uloge vrijednosti u suvremenom političkom poretku, obilježenom procesima stvaranja novih identitetâ i pluralnoga društva, kao i procesa “izlaska iz religije” kako ga opisuje Marcel Gauchet. Osobit je naglasak na tom kako je politički i pravni poredak oslonjen na predpolitičke vrijednosti koje je oblikovala zapadna pravna i politička tradicija, a između kojih je ovdje analizirana osobna sloboda, ideja solidarnosti i ideja služenja javnomu dobru. Unatoč razvoju (post)sekularnoga političkoga poretka, za politički i pravni sustav ostaje odlučujuća normativna utemeljenost na navedenim vrijednostima, te je uloga kršćanstva, koje je tijekom povijesnih institucionalizacija oblikovalo preduvjete zapadnoga pravnoga i političkoga poretka, osobito relevantna.

Pilgrimage to Holy Places in History of Vyatka Province (Second Half of 19th — Early 20th Centuries)

The article analyzes the reasons for the growing interest in holy places, primarily Palestine, associated with Russia’s state policy, based on published sources. It also examines the forms and methods of educational work. In 1894, the Vyatka department of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society was established in the Vyatka province to disseminate information about the Holy Land and support Russia’s activities in the Middle East. The department raised funds for the society’s work in the Holy Land and organized lectures on the history and activities of the society. Significant results were achieved through this educational work, including an increase in the number of members in the Vyatka department, particularly at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and a growing interest in the Holy Land. Additionally, in the second half of the 19th century, some representatives of secular and spiritual society in the Vyatka province visited Orthodox holy sites, primarily the Holy Land and Mount Athos, and left memoirs about their pilgrimage experiences. Thus, the remote Vyatka province became spiritually closer to the Holy Land in the second half of the 19th century.

A Choral Meditation: Fusing Past and Present in the Sacred Music of Eoghan Desmond

Choral music and the sacred have been intertwined since the Middle Ages. With the increasing secularisation of society, it is notable that the sacred choral canon continues to expand and attract audiences in religious and secular spaces, underlining the enduring importance of tradition and the human desire to search for something beyond our existence. The practice of setting sacred texts to music abounds in the work of contemporary composers, continuing the historic tradition into the present day via a wide range of compositional and stylistic approaches. In his sacred works, Irish composer Eoghan Desmond achieves a sound that fuses the past and present, exhibiting both the visceral and meditative aspects associated with the texts that he sets. This article focuses on the composer’s choral work Nothing in Vain (2021), a setting of John Henry Newman’s ‘A Meditation on Trust in God’. Through critical score analysis, I highlight Desmond’s ability to reflect Newman’s devotion to God and to evoke a sense of the spiritual through his formal organisation and application of harmonic, rhythmic, and textural techniques, drawing on influences from the Renaissance tradition, the contemporary style of ambient music, and the work of well-known composer James MacMillan. Desmond’s synthesis of ancient and contemporary compositional practices invites all listeners to engage in this musical meditation and contemplate the message of the spiritual text.

The Effect of Religious Spiritual Education and Care on the Quality of Life among the Elderly: A Review

This segment explores spirituality in elderly care, emphasizing its significance and challenges. It highlights Cicely Saunders' pioneering holistic approach to integrating spirituality into patient care, especially in palliative settings. The lack of universally defined research concepts and cultural diversities impeding the understanding of spiritual care practices in elderly care environments are emphasized. It underscores how contemporary secular societies redefine spirituality from traditional religious institutions, yet its importance in addressing existential questions remains intact. We outline the study's methodology for evaluating spirituality's impact on the quality of life of the elderly in Iran. It details the systematic review and meta-analysis used to synthesize findings from relevant studies, assessing the influence of religious-spiritual education, notably theotherapy, on quality of life. Factors affecting intervention efficacy, such as cultural norms, are discussed. The study showed positive outcomes post-intervention, indicating improvements in various life quality dimensions. The potential of theotherapy is noted, acknowledging cultural influences on effectiveness. Insights into spirituality's role in emotional stability, leadership, and organizational practices within Malaysian contexts, particularly amidst Industry 4.0, are presented. The need for comprehensive caregiver education and incorporating culturally aligned religious-spiritual education for the elderly's well-being is underscored. Additionally, the significance of emotional stability and effective organizational practices in Malaysia's evolving socio-economic context for quality care among the elderly is emphasized. This conclusion stresses the holistic approach necessary for optimized elderly care and organizational success.

The Position and Relevance of Abu Al-A'la Maududi's Political Thoughts for Leadership Ethics in the Era Society 5.0

The lack of a leader’s figure perceived by the citizens has become a social phenomenon in Indonesian society. There are secular pragmatic practices, political secularization, flexing, and hedonic lifestyles which are shown by the leaders and become their self-image.This study aims to analyze the contribution of Al Maududi’s thought to ethical leadership in the era of society 5.0. The design of this study is library research and the main data source is the literature, which was written by Al Maududi. This research traces the data through the book “Empat Istilah Pokok dalam Al-Qur’an” and the book “al-Khilafah wa al-mulk”. The leadership in Al-Maududi’s framework is the concept of theo-democracy which states that the leader is an individual who showed God’s sovereignty under God’s rule and has a social responsibility to accept criticism from the citizens. Al-Maududi’s framework of ethical leadership is that leaders should not enrich themselves with the power of their position. In regards to fulfilling SDG’s goals, leaders who can manage nature and human resources are needed. The leaders should know how to utilize the technology in managing the resources and be able to take the profit for the citizens’ well-being.
 Keywords: Al-Maududi, political thought, leadership in the era of society 5.0

Gallant Officers and Benevolent Men: Royal Navy officers, voluntarism and the launch of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society in the early Victorian era

This article examines the relatively unexplored relationship between Royal Navy flag and commissioned officers and shore-based secular and civic voluntary societies in the early Victorian period using the case study of the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners’ Royal Benevolent Society. Portrayed in the literature as heroes and objectivized symbols of the glory of nation, naval officers instead had agency of their own. They were active facilitators, employing personal experience, naval culture and patronage networks to drive forward philanthropic initiatives for the society. They were crucial to the society’s success, moving it forward to incorporation by an act of parliament in 1850, and to national and imperial expansion. It suggests that naval associative voluntary service needs to be considered more fully not only in naval history, but also within broader historical studies.

Canon law and latin legal characterization

The purpose of the article is to focus on the early history of law in our era, when secular law and religious one shaped each of their own legal system, but at the same time were not clearly distinguishable and separable. The work highlights some important but key nuances that seem to particularly characterize the dimensions of religious and secular law. The main results of the article form a set of conclusions about the presence of secular and spiritual values in the common legal culture of the distant Roman Empire. In times, when canon or religious law, which manifested itself as one of the facets of values of the Christian church, began to become an inevitable part of secular law. In the end, it is important to note that the work as a whole concludes that the political and dogmatic, hence the divine and traditions of the Roman Empire of the ancient state, were became more and more vividly and obviously apparent not only in laws, decisions and edicts of the empire, but also in their potential and possible clash with the acts and regulations issued by the church as a competing force for the power of the empire. Keywords: church; canon law; Roman law; Christian rights.

Key Principles for Liturgical Catechesis of Children

Abstract: Aesthetic forms and a mystagogical approach are necessary for liturgical catechesis of children in a post-Christian, secular society. Since the earliest times of the Church, catechesis occurred gradually, in various phases and stages. The theologian Joseph Ratzinger reflected upon the gradual steps in liturgical catechesis sixty-five years ago. As families become more dispersed, a new sense of intergenerational relations and narration must develop; the church, as a family, must shift how it orients towards God, especially in the liturgical catechesis of children. Using art, music, and liturgical gestures pedagogically allows children to understand and gain a deeper sense of symbols. Focusing on key elements of catechesis is a way for children to gradually build up their knowledge, with family culture assisting in forming faith. As the children develop, they will gain a deeper sense of identity and faith as they contemplate, most especially in silence, what they have learned. This identity with a faith tradition and the Church allows children to awaken and mature. This process must address the differentiation between primary, universal symbols and secondary symbols drawn from the tradition. Complementarily, as identity is reflected upon and experienced in faith, this openness allows for a deeper understanding of the kerygma.

ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЕ ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ И СЕКУЛЯРНОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО: ПРОБЛЕМЫ СОВМЕСТИМОСТИ

The article deals with the issues of the religion politicization in a secular society on the example of Orthodox radical activism. The growth of conservative political attitudes among active Orthodox citizens is analyzed as a reaction to the acceleration of the secularization process of Russian society, which creates a threat of marginalization of religious identity. The influence of Western European Christian fundamentalists on the Russian communities of Orthodox radicals is noted. There is a relationship between the spread of radical conservative ideas and values in modern Russian society and catastrophic socio-political changes after the collapse of the USSR, which were accompanied by serious transformations of the collective (national) identity. The article studies specifics of the new nationalreligious identity, formed by modern mass media with extensive borrowings from the legacy of Russian conservative philosophy of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Particular attention is paid to the “roots” of modern Orthodox activism, its close connection with Russian nationalism and international anti-globalism. The collision of the values of a secular society with its cult of freedom and anticlerical attitudes with a conservative-religious picture of the world, in which conspiracy theories and the rejection of liberal ideas play a significant role, is considered by the authors of the article as a result of the collapse of the former socio-political system, where atheism and communist ideology were the main semantic dominants in society.

A Plea for Practical Reason

This article presents the career of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737–1832) as a template for Catholic political action in a modern, secularized society. Carroll’s Jesuit formation explains his commitment to politics as a science of the practical reason, providing a good example for contemporary Catholics who must engage in dialogue in order to restore the United States’ foundational political ideas, supposedly based on Enlightenment thought, to their original Catholic meanings.

Faith and Religion in a Secular Society by Jozef De Kesel (review)

Faith and Religion in a Secular Society by Jozef De Kesel (review)