Secular Tradition Research Articles

Humanism: The “Third Denomination” or “Leading Culture”

After the unification of Germany in 1990, German society became less religious. There is a significant part of the population that does not consider itself belonging to any religion/religious community (Konfessionslos). They do not have a single, integral worldview. However, they are mostly non-religious, and their number has been steadily growing in recent years (now about 40% of the population). Under these conditions, the secular organizations operating in the country seek to attract the interest of this group by offering alternatives to religious culture and worldview. The paper examines the two most influential concepts of secular humanism promoted in Germany, as well as the organizations that promote them. The concept of humanism as a “third denomination” implies the unification of Konfessionslos under the auspices of the German Humanist Union, which represents its members and helps them to cultivate a secular worldview. The concept of humanism as a “leading culture” suggests radically changing the status quo, proclaiming the values of humanism and Enlightenment at the state level, starting their dissemination in schools, and depriving religious organizations of existing privileges. The study examines the prerequisites for the emergence of both concepts, their possible connections with other secular traditions, and the prospects for their success concepts in the future. In particular, an attempt is made to reconstruct the identities of the Konfessionslos in order to determine their role in the processes of secularization. It is shown that the basics and features of the concepts are closely related to the practice of those organizations promoting them. Additionally, the theses of S. Schröder on different types of organizations are critically considered. It is shown that the composition and moods of citizens who do not belong to religious organizations or to convinced believers play a great role in the potential success of the concepts. We describe previous studies of this population group, and show the need for a more thorough study. Finally, we draw conclusions on the relationship of competing concepts and their position in the general logic of secularization processes.

Взаимообогащение православных и светских историко-культурных традиций и ценностей

The article discusses the main directions for the mutual enrichment of Orthodox and secular traditions. The author focuses on the outstanding historical Crimean monuments, emphasizes the need to study the material at school. The main role is assigned to the formation of the spiritual culture of the student on the basis of introducing children to the historical and cultural heritage of the Crimea.

The Christian Anti-Torture Movement and the Politics of Conscience in France

Abstract This article investigates how the concept of ‘conscience’ emerged as a battleground within the French Catholic Church and as a politicized concept with implications for ideas about human rights. State-sponsored torture during the Algerian War (1954–62) prompted dissident Christians to pioneer the use of ‘individual conscience’ as a tool of resistance. The Christians of the anti-torture movement embraced the theologically informed language of conscience alongside a French, secular tradition of rights drawn from the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The way that Catholic dissidents thought about rights transcended the secular–religious divide; while recognizing a liberal concept of rights coming out of the French Revolution, these Catholics also insisted upon the spiritual function of individual conscience as a check upon the state. Intra-Catholic debates about conscience thus reveal the political and theological diversity within mid-twentieth-century Christianity, long assumed to have been dominated by actors on the political right, as well as the multiplicity of coexisting ways of speaking about and interpreting human rights.

Zweifel, Skeptizismus und das Dilemma der Wahrheitsfindung in der höfischen Epik des Mittelalters

Doubt, Scepticism, and the Dilemma of Establishing the Truth in Middle High German Epic. An Outline of a Research Field The article reflects on the specific uses of doubt as a productive method of ascertaining truth in Middle High German Epic (12th to 14th centuries). Intra-tex­tual debates on the correct interpretation of alternative claims to truth and the presentation of opposing points of view trigger a cognitive and emotional effect of doubt which strongly resonates in metaphors, images and rhetorical figures. Additionally, doubt inspires poetic (and narrative) techniques, motifs and character types which extant research has failed to recognise as interconnected. The purpose of this article is to introduce a research field that is concerned with the analysis of courtly scepticism in secular traditions of literature.

SINGING HORACE IN ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

Horace (65–8 BC), the great lyric poet of the Augustan Age in Rome, composed over a hundred Odes. Scholarly understanding of their early medieval reception has been hampered by the insistence of classical philologists that he was a purely literary poet. Ancient sources and Horace’s own writings demonstrate that he was a performing artist who sang to the accompaniment of his lyre. His use of Alcaic, Sapphic and Asclepiad metres has musical implications. In manuscripts from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, forty-eight passages from the Odes are accompanied by musical notation. The Montpellier codex has notation for the Ode to Phyllis (Odes 4.11) which relates to Guido d’Arezzo’s ‘ut-re-mi’ mnemonic. The St Petersburg codex has settings which suggest various uses, in the schoolroom, abbey entertainments and goliardic performance. The surviving manuscripts were widely spread across Europe and supported a monastic and secular tradition of Horatian song.

Православие и либерализм в российской политике

Russia, in contrast to other modern Orthodox European count ries, has never experienced struggle for church autocephaly and the formation of political pluralism simultaneously, which naturally brought the church and liberals closer together. The distinguishing feature of the Russian liberalism is its late, or “catch up”, development. In the 19th century, libera lism no longer needed a religious approval; the appeal to the Holy Scriptures looked archaic. Another Russian distinguishing feature — divergence of secu lar and spiritual traditions — is also very important. After the emergence of the dualistic monarchy in Russia (1906—1917), religious topics were no lon ger a taboo, but Christian liberalism as an influential trend failed to develop. The attempts of combining liberal and Christian ideas in the pre-revolutiona ry Russian politics faced a number of problems. The results in practice were modest either due to the lack of the electoral demand, or due to the blocking of specific initiatives at the state and church levels. The promotion of liberal va lues contradicted Ortho dox tenets, and the target electoral group — the lower clergy — heavily depended on the episcopate. In the post-Soviet Russia, in contrast to the count ries in Central Europe, Christian politics, including its liberal version, did not revive. At the end of the day, all such projects have remained marginal. The episcopate focuses on cooperation with the authorities, and there is little support for liberal ideas among the faithful. The future might see a gradual strengthening of liberal tendencies within the church, but at the same time, the Russian version of Christian democracy remains extreme ly unlikely.

The Postsecular Turn: Interrogating Postcolonialism after 9/11

Due to its complete reliance on western secular tradition, postcolonial theory has been accused of secular bias manifested in its negligence of spiritual and religious epistemologies. Having its methodological roots in forms of the secular – liberal humanism, Marxism, the western university – postcolonialism has largely ignored a spiritual dimension. Put differently, inspired and influenced by western ideologies such as Marxism, nationalism, postmodernism and secular humanism, as well as Edward Said’s concepts of secular criticism and the secular intellectual, postcolonialism has downplayed and rejected religion as a subject of concern in favour of secular thought, defining its intellectual and political project in opposition to the term “sacred”. However, owing to the global return of religion from “exile” (especially after the 9/11 attacks), postcolonial critics and theorists have started to engage with the question of religion and spirituality. They have recognized the significance of the religious and the spiritual as modes of postcolonial intervention. This essay attempts to highlight the postsecular turn within the field of postcolonial studies. My argument is that due to the contributions of non-western postcolonialists and their acknowledgement of religion as a postcolonial category of analysis, postcolonialism has become postsecular, furnishing a room for both the religious and the secular so that they may enter into an academic critical dialogue. This gradual process of change from a secular postcolonialism to a postsecular postcolonialism is reflected in postcolonial writers’ inclusion of spiritual and religious matters in their literary and theoretical narratives.

‘&I/&you’ An Innovative Research Instrument for Youngsters to Explore Their Life Orientation

In this contribution, we explore youngsters’ positionality regarding religion and present an example to facilitate them to ‘research’ their own beliefs and their affective commitments to their faith. We start with a short general introduction in Fowler’s theory of faith development. This is followed by findings from research in England, Estonia, Ghana, the Netherlands, and Malawi. From these findings, we conclude that youngsters need to be guided in their exploration of religious and secular worldview traditions. For this, we developed an instrument in particular for Muslim youngsters ‘at risk’ for radicalization: ‘&I/&you’. It is along the lines of religious tradition(s), citizenship, discrimination, and environmental concerns that students explore their convictions, broaden their horizons, and further develop their own (religious or secular) life orientation. Our innovative and explorative instrument (‘&I/&you’)—part of the PIREd (PIREd: Playful Islamic Religious Education) module of seven lessons—is described in detail. Preliminary results of pilot studies are promising. Students see this instrument as a ‘space’ for dialogue and love to share their ideas and sharpen their mind ‘in the presence of the other’.

Turkey’s Response to International Terrorism Eastern

The article analyzes the interconnection between the direction of Turkey's struggle against terrorism with modern Islamist and nationalist ideas of Turkey. A majority of Turkish citizens following the Hanafi school of Islam, have historically opposed the purist religious doctrine of the Salafists. The author emphasizes that neither Turkey’s secular tradition nor its predominant, moderate Islamic theology has made Turkish citizens immune to radicalization. Modern Turkish history has produced several violent Islamist organizations advocating Salafi views in line with the Islamic State’s ideology. Turkish jihadists have been found among the ranks of foreign fighters in several recent conflict zones abroad. The article proves that when the uprisings began in Syria in 2011, Turkey threw its full support behind the opposition – harboring and mobilizing dissidents, arming rebels, and allowing free passage along the Syrian-Turkish border. Jihadists began to exploit the security vacuum, including ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra (now Hayat Tahrir al-Sham), the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda. The article also addresses the problems of Ankara’s indifference at the first stage towards the ISIL’s activities within and across Turkish territory. While the crossings between Turkey and ISIL territory officially were closed in 2014, smuggling through the frontier continued apace and Ankara only later started to engage ISIL militarily. The author concludes that the period of active struggle against al-Qaeda in Turkey (2003-2011) gave way after 2012 to a reduction in counterterrorism operations and now supporters of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham thank Turkey for protecting them against Syrian government forces, Russia and Iran.

HUÉRFANOS DE LOS JESUITAS. LA DESPEDIDA DE LA COMPAÑÍA DE JESÚS AL REYNO Y CIUDAD DE SANTIAGO DE CHILE EN TIEMPOS DE LA EXPULSIÓN (1767)

Por medio de un documento escrito por un autor anónimo –posiblemente jesuita– analizamos la llegada del decreto de extrañamiento de la Compañía de Jesús en 1767 realizado por el rey Carlos III. El texto compuesto de una endecha inicial y un epitafio relata el dolor y el lamento de los jesuitas ante la sensación de injusticia y la inconmensurabilidad del futuro exilio, está marcado por la apologética de su historia, la metaforización del dolor y el miedo al futuro. El documento anónimo funciona como una despedida de su lugar específico en el mundo, pero, al mismo tiempo, es un registro-monumento de su transitar histórico en Chile que apela también a su tradición secular en el orbe católico.

Guest warriors: The phenomenon of post-soviet fighters in the Syrian conflict

A puzzling aspect of the Syrian war has been the seemingly endless infusion of foreign fighters who have fueled and sustained the conflict. Unique among these are the militants from former Soviet regions such as Northern Caucasus in Russia and republics of Central Asia. In the evolving complexity of a layered and multifaceted conflict, it is easy to overlook the incongruousness of their presence in the conflict. Unlike most other foreign fighters, including those joining from Western Europe and North America, the post-Soviet militants lack the ethno-linguistic ties to the region. Rather, they hail from areas steeped in comparatively secular traditions and largely detached from the central tenants of the Syrian war. This makes their presence among extremist groups, such as the Islamic State, somewhat intriguing and anomalous. A key question, therefore, is why would these individuals join what to them in many ways is an alien war with extremely prohibitive costs? This articles proposes, as complementary to the dominant religious-ideological accounts, an explanation rooted in the enabling effect of marginalization processes in militants’ domestic settings.

Reading the Arabian Nights in Modern Hebrew Literature: Judaism, Arabness and the City

Abstract The discourse about the Arabian Nights illustrates the ways through which hegemonic poetic and literary discourses crystallized themselves, while developing a set of distinctions as a yardstick for the estimation of literary works, as well as the connections between these various distinctions—namely ‘realistic’ and ‘fantastic’, East and West, and oral storytelling and folklore versus written literature. This article focuses on the discourse about the Arabian Nights in the field of modern Hebrew literature. In turning towards the collection, discussing it and translating some of its sections, the various characters who dealt with it expressed and promoted a cultural and political narrative which saw cultural affinities as a potential basis for broader political cooperation between Arabs and Jews. I will argue, however, that the discourse about the collection illustrates a process of modern Hebrew literature adopting a definition of itself as European and secular literature. I will also argue that the discourse on the Arabian Nights reveals the various directions taken by those who resisted the construal of modern Hebrew literature as a vector in the European- secular tradition. These counter-hegemonic assertions particularly took the form of arguments that the collection was a multifaceted cultural treasure that includes Hebrew layers, or, alternatively, representing it as a model of a modern literary genre, the city-centered anthology.

Hannah Arendt, the human condition and the embrace of human diversity in the discourses of two contemporary Islamists: Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zahra (1898–1974) and Sheikh Wahbah al-Zuhaili (1932–2015)

ABSTRACT This paper’s departure point is Hannah Arendt’s assertion that the ‘human condition’ is defined by our ‘plurality’. It contends that without having read Arendt two contemporary Islamists – Sheikhs Muhammad Abu Zahra and Wahbah al-Zuhaili – arrive at similar conclusions regarding the human condition. While Arendt draws on European thought, Abu Zahra and Zuhaili anchor their views in the Islamic tradition. The literature has tended to treat these two mega-traditions – the largely secular and liberal western tradition and the Islamic tradition – as being at odds. The contribution of this paper lies in demonstrating that scholars who belong to these two traditions can often make similar assertions regarding the centrality of diversity to the human condition. The paper demonstrates how the two scholar-sheiks draw on the Islamic tradition to argue that the grouping of humanity into separate nations and religions is natural and divinely ordained. Abu Zahra and Zuhaili maintain that peace is the norm in the relationship between Muslim and non-Muslim states, since religious differences do not constitute valid grounds for fighting. While they anchor this assertion in the Islamic tradition,it also reflects their embrace of Arendt’s liberal notion that as humans we are defined by our diversity.

FROM LAW TO DHARMA: STATE LAW AND SACRED DUTY IN ANCIENT INDIA

AbstractThe legal treatises of ancient India, called Dharmaśāstras, are often read as records of the initial emergence of law from religion in South Asia. The Dharmaśāstras teach the dharma, or “sacred duty,” of different members of society. It is one of the dharmas of the king to adjudicate disputes that come before his courts, and it is widely accepted that a need to articulate the king's dharma led the composers of the Dharmaśāstras over time to fashion rules for state courts, a body of law called vyavahāra. Scholars such as Henry Sumner Maine and Max Weber saw in the Dharmaśāstras evidence of the disentanglement and rationalization of law, respectively. A close examination of our sources, however, shows that the law of royal courts emerged not within the Dharmaśāstra tradition, but within an adjacent and decidedly more secular tradition of statecraft. It was gradually absorbed into Dharmaśāstra texts, where it was reconfigured as sacred duty and its historical origins were obscured. This article argues that the early history of state law in India is best described, therefore, not as a transition from dharma to law, but as a transition from law to dharma.

La ciudadanía desde el pensamiento social religioso comparado islamocristiano

El concepto de ciudadanía, en cuanto pertenencia a una comunidad política, es un concepto de carácter secular fruto de la modernidad occidental y clave para una sana separación entre la religión y la política. Sin embargo, las tradiciones religiosas pueden ayudar a comprender con más profundidad este concepto. Desde una perspectiva de teología comparada la tradición política secular y las tradiciones cristiana e islámica de pensamiento político tienen mucho que aprender unas de otras. Cristianismo e islam son iluminadas desde la idea secular de ciudadanía para profundizar en la justa diferenciación religión-política. Por su parte, ambas tradiciones religiosas, cada una a su manera, enseñan a la tradición secular a ver a la persona como una unidad que incluya su dimensión religiosa y a ver la ciudadanía como abierta a la realidad de la familia humana.

The ‘Logos’ of Faith in the Era of Pope Francis

Through globalization and greater exchange, religious identities are meeting and facing each other on a regular basis and in a very rapid way. As intercultural and religious plurality made possible the rise of Christianity, so in our age Christians must continue to be in dialogue with the secular world and other faith traditions, and be ready to move beyond an apologetic and exclusive form of self-understanding. Pope Francis’s magisterium is challenging the Catholic church to ‘reform’ its identity, envisioning the logos for Christian faith in discernment, reconciliation, and transformation, so that through a theology of encounter Christians will better understand their faith, redefine their confessional boundaries in a dialogical way, and become bridge-builders in our contemporary pluralistic society.

Konsep Proses Belajar Kognitif dalam Pespektif Islam antara Kontradiksi dan Kontradistingsi dengan Konsep Pembelajaran Kognitif Model Barat

Accepting the role for cognitive transmission means recognizing that humans are not empty slate at birth. The basic assumption is that every human being is born by bringing fitrah and equipped with various potentials and abilities that are different from other humans. With that provision, he then learns: first through things that can be sensed by using his five senses as a window of knowledge; then gradually from things that can be sensed to the abstract, and from what can be seen to be understood. This study aims to describe the concept of cognitive learning processes in Islamic perspectives between contradictions and contradictions with the western cognitive learning concept. From the results of the discussion it was concluded that: cognitive learning and teaching are more responsive to the power of their instincts because they are purely related to the ability to develop rational abilities (reason). Many found contradictions and defects in their theories, so that revisions and emerging new theories of cognitive succession. While in Islam there is only one verse "And Allah takes you out of your mother's stomach in a state of not knowing anything, and He gives you hearing, sight and heart, so that you are grateful" (An Nahl: 78) is able to break the concept of response to the instinctive power in terms this is called scular and in Islam there has never been a secular tradition that separates religion from life

Sustainability and the common good: Catholic Social Teaching and \u2018Integral Ecology\u2019 as contributions to a framework of social values for sustainability transitions

It is widely acknowledged that the large-scale and long-term transitions needed to mitigate climate change and to implement policies for sustainable development within planetary boundaries require significant shifts in values and behaviours. Consequently, there is increasing interest in the processes through which major societal transitions for sustainability can occur through peaceful cooperation and widespread embrace of pro-environmental values, and the values associated with the broad concept of sustainability such as care for the interests of future generations and concern for the poor. This encompasses the search for compelling narratives to frame the process and goals of change and the need for the fostering of virtues and ethical frameworks of identity and practice that can underpin advocacy and change for sustainability. This requires drawing on richer sources of values and ethics. We suggest that important resources can be found in religious, as well as secular traditions of social values and ethical analysis. While major religions have begun to reflect environmental concerns and sustainability goals in their theology and praxis, with immense potential and actual influence over value and behaviours, little research has explored the impacts and implications of this development; nor indeed, the intellectual stimulus and social capabilities they can offer to secular thinkers and practitioners in sustainable development. In particular, we argue that there is a need to consider the affinities between secular sustainability frameworks for ethics and policy and the concepts of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) on the Common Good, recently updated by Pope Francis to integrate ecological concern and a call for universal ‘ecological conversion’ and cooperation. We outline the key features of CST and the Pope’s new ‘Integral Ecology’ framework and identify affinities, in particular, with Elinor Ostrom’s system of design principles for sustainable management of commons. We conclude with suggestions for research to investigate the interrelationships of the Integral Ecology reframing of CST with initiatives for transformational change in values and practices for sustainability.

Die forcierte Säkularisierung und ihre Nachwirkung. Das Bildungserbe der DDR am Beispiel Religiöser Jugendfeiern in Ostdeutschland

Abstract In the GDR, forced secularization led to a complex habitual posture of distance vis-à-vis explicit forms of religion and religious communitization. In order to initiate processes of religious communication and learning among families with no confessional affiliation, the church developed and shared responsibility for religious ceremonies for adolescents as an alternative to the secular »Jugendweihe« (coming-of-age-ceremony). These religious ceremonies were offered as a ritual in-between secular and religious traditions in order for the church to regain relevance for a broader part of the population.

Проблема обреченности гражданского и религиозного типа современного буржуазного общества: марксистский анализ

The article argues that the Marxist critique of the secular and religious type of bourgeois society has not lost its modern significance, since the values and objectives of the current society have not changed. They are based on the thirst of international equity-holders, which seized the political power to retain it for themselves, and therefore secure complete supremacy in all spheres of contemporary society. Moreover, this is why there is no point in hoping for sovereignty and an honest class peace. To strengthen the values of civilization, society must conduct selection and introduction of its best secular and religious traditions with consideration of Marx’s criticism of civil society.