Religion & the Public Sphere

Nuova laicità vo cercando per non essere laicista

by Mario Ricciardi

published on "Il Riformista", 1 may 2010

A review of Claudia Mancina's book on bioethics and the role of religion in public life. A review of Claudia Mancina's book on bioethics and the role of religion in public life.

Reasons to Ban? The Anti-Burqa Movement in Western Europe

by Prakash Shah

This MMG Working Paper 12-09 (Göttingen: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity) is Co-authored with Ralph Grillo, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex. Publications include: Pluralism and the Politics of Difference: State, Culture, and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective, Clarendon Press (1998); editor of The Family in Question: Immigrant and Ethnic Minorities in Multicultural Europe, Amsterdam University Press (2008); co-editor of Legal Practice and Cultural Diversity, Ashgate (2009). Ralph Grillo is a member of the Advisory Group of the Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity at Göttingen.

During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a... more During the 2000s, the dress of Muslim women in Muslim-minority countries in Europe and elsewhere became increasingly a matter for debate and, in several instances, the subject of legislation. In France, a ban on the wearing of the headscarf
in places of education (2004) was followed in 2010 by the law criminalizing the wearing of the face-veil (usually but inaccurately referred to as the ‘burqa’) in public space. Other countries have enacted similar legislation. Muslim women’s dress has historically been a controversial matter in Muslim-majority countries, too, most recently in North Africa following the Arab Spring, but the present paper concentrates on the movement against face-veiling in Western Europe, documenting what has been happening and analysing the arguments proposed to justify criminalizing this type of garment. In doing so, the paper explores the implications for our understanding of contemporary (ethnically and religiously) diverse societies and their governance.
Is anti-veiling legislation a protest against what is interpreted as an Islamic practice unacceptable in liberal democracies, a sign of a wider discomfort with non-European otherness, or an expression of an underlying racism articulated in cultural terms?
Whatever the reason, is criminalization an appropriate response? An Appendix notes some topics for further research.

Produce, Increase, Replenish: A Prolegomenon to a Public Theology of Management

by Billy Maynard

This prolegomenon provides an introduction to the hermeneutic framework developed as part of the author's on-going... more This prolegomenon provides an introduction to the hermeneutic framework developed as part of the author's on-going work towards the articulation of a systematic public theology of management.  The author invites conversation and criticism in response to this paper.  Please contact him directly at:  billy.maynard@publictheologyproject.org

Americanasana (review essay on history of yoga in America)

by Jared Farmer

Special attention given to Mark Singleton's YOGA BODY, Stefanie Syman's THE SUBTLE BODY, and Robert Love's THE GREAT OOM.

The Morality of Hypocrisy: Gnapheus's Latin Play Hypocrisis and the Lutheran Reformation

by Verena Demoed

Book chapter published in Literary Cultures and Public Opinion in the Low Countries, 1450-1650 (Leiden - Boston, 2011) 91-119.

The representation of religions - especially Catholicism and Lutheranism - during the Reformation in a Latin play. The representation of religions - especially Catholicism and Lutheranism - during the Reformation in a Latin play.

Inmigración, diversidad religiosa y centros de culto en la ciudad de Barcelona

by Gloria García-Romeral

Co-authored with Martínez, Julia; Griera, Maria M. and Forteza, Maria.
Published in Migraciones, 2011

The aim of this paper is to explore the way in which the increase of immigrants arriving in Catalonia has changed the... more The aim of this paper is to explore the way in which the increase of immigrants arriving in Catalonia has changed the religious map of the region, with specific attention to the city of Barcelona. This paper will discuss the transformations that have taken place in the last 15 years and analyse not just the growth of Islam, but other faiths as well. One of the most relevant changes has been the steady increase in the number of places of worship for non-Catholic religious minorities. This increase is a result of the appearance of new religions, and the expansion of pre-existing religions. These changes include the incorporation of new languages and traditions, the provision of new services to meet the specific needs of immigrant populations and, finally, the internal transformation of the communities’ doctrinal profiles.

Navigating Religious Boundaries at School: From Legitimate to Specious Religious Questions

by Gloria García-Romeral

Co-authored with Fernández Mostaza, Maria Esther and Fons, Clara
Published in Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies, 2009

In The World But Not of It? Voices and Experiences of Conservative Christian Students in Public Schools

by J M Marshall

Religion & Education
Volume 32 Number 2
Fall 2005

While American schools are ostensibly religiously neutral, surveying both school history and current and past legal... more While American schools are ostensibly religiously neutral, surveying both school history and current and past legal cases indicates that the line between religion and schooling is not at all clear.1 Students, teachers, parents, and community members often argue that schools are either too religious or not religious enough.

Separatism – the notion of "being in the world but not of it" – has a long tradition within conservative Christian denominations.2 Parents have had to decide whether to separate themselves from those who do not share their beliefs so that they can maintain the strength of those beliefs, or whether to engage the "other" in order to share those beliefs. Many Christian institutions of the early twentieth century were founded as a result of separatism, and today conservative Christians remain strong proponents of home schooling.3

Glenn has written that for religiously devout students, who take "their faith with them into every significant aspect of their lives…the religious ‘neutrality’ of the school" may be experienced "as an aggression."4 Previous research suggests the value of considering the relationship between conservative Christianity and public schooling in terms of how these students experience their schools. Darnell and Sherkat5 found that conservative Christian belief was negatively related to youth’s educational aspirations, and other researchers have linked conservative Christian denominational adherence to lower adult educational attainment.6 While religious involvement seems to be related positively to youth behaviors ranging from time spent on homework7 to safer driving,8 the relationship between conservative Christian religion and schooling seems to be less positive.9

Given these factors as well as the prevalence of the conservative Christian youth population – by some accounts, more than 26% of American youth,10 it seems important to understand what the experience of these students in public schools has been. This study, therefore, asks, What has been the experience of conservative Christian students in public schools?

Whose Religious Values?

by J M Marshall

The School Administrator
May 2008 Number 5, Vol. 65

Managing changing religious demographics in a school community legally and pro-actively Managing changing religious demographics in a school community legally and pro-actively

Religion and Education: Walking the Line in Public Schools

by J M Marshall

Phi Delta Kappan November 2003 vol. 85 no. 3 239-242

In this article, the author discusses the First Amendment's free exercise and establishment of religion classes as... more In this article, the author discusses the First Amendment's free exercise and establishment of religion classes as applied to the public school classroom. She provides a quiz with examples, discussion, and additional resources. (4pp.)

Evangelicalism and Capitalism in Transatlantic Context

by Mathew Guest

Politics and Religion, vol. 4, no. 2, Autumn 2010, pp. 257-279

This article is a critical engagement with political scientist William Connolly’s book Christianity and Capitalism:... more This article is a critical engagement with political scientist William Connolly’s book Christianity and Capitalism: American Style. Connolly’s analysis of the ways in which evangelical Christianity and capitalist agendas interrelate in the US context is outlined and critiqued in terms of its tendency to homogenise the US evangelical movement and overstate its incorporation of right wing political interests. Its theoretical framework is also critiqued, but developed in light of its potential to generate insights into the global context of evangelical influence, including as a vehicle for capitalist values. This is explored in terms of US influence upon British evangelicalism and what this reveals about the circulation of evangelical-capitalist ideas within a transatlantic context. A case study is offered of the Willow Creek sponsored Global Leadership Summit by way of illustration.

Iterations of Lament: Anachronism and Affect in a Shi'i Islamic Revival in Turkey

by Kabir Tambar

The Aesthetics of Public Visibility: Alevi Semah and the Paradoxes of Pluralism in Turkey

by Kabir Tambar

Theological Reflection on Public Policy: The Church and Reconstruction of South African Society

by James R. Cochrane

Reading the Signs of the Millennium

by James R. Cochrane

" Actuality": Limits to a Social Vision

by James R. Cochrane

Religious Pluralism and National Constitutional Traditions in Europe

by Daniel Augenstein

Published in C. Ungureanu & L. Zucca (eds.), Law, State and Religion in the New Europe: Debates and Dilemmas, Cambridge University Press (2012)

Excluded Publics – Included Privates: The Janus-headed nature of the Liberal Public-Private Divide

by Daniel Augenstein

In P. Charalampos, C. McCorkindale & C. Michelon (eds.), The Public in Law, Ashgate (2012)

The justification of the liberal public-private divide rests on two distinct claims that are often lumped together:... more The justification of the liberal public-private divide rests on two distinct claims that are often lumped together: first, that the distinction between a ‘public sphere’ and a ‘private sphere’ is a meaningful way to cognise and structure modern pluralistic societies; and secondly, that there is a meaningful way to distinguish what is or ought to be ‘public’ from what is or ought to be ‘private’. The paper critically scrutinises the plausibility of both claims in the context of European debates on the display of religious symbols in the public sphere. It argues that the distinction between the public sphere and the private sphere provides the framework for negotiating the ‘public’ and the ‘private’ between national majorities and religious minorities as members of the same national community: the exclusion qua public from the public sphere contains a simultaneous inclusion qua private in the private sphere that is premised upon the inclusion of the excluded in the polity as a whole

Science and Religion Dialogue: Insights from Public Understanding of Science

by shiju sam varughese

in Kuruvilla Pandikkattu S.J. (ed). Dancing to Diversity: Science-Religion Dialogue in India. Pune: Serials Publishers, 2009.

‘Science and religion dialogue’ is gaining much more attention in the contemporary world, especially after the... more ‘Science and religion dialogue’ is gaining much more attention in the contemporary world, especially after the emergence of it as an academic field within theology in the 1960s. The field itself is anchored on the conviction that there are possibilities for mutual cooperation and engagement between science and religion. The literature developed on science-religion dialogue shows that the methodologies in the field are profoundly dependent on Christian theology, religious philosophy and the philosophy of science, along with the recent endeavors to incorporate insights from the feminist and post colonial studies of science. However, it seems that so far no attempt has been made to introduce ‘Sociology of Scientific Knowledge’ (SSK) into the field of science and religion dialogue as a valid source of methodological insights about the process of knowledge production in modern science.

The intention of this paper is to demonstrate that ‘Public Understanding of Science’ (PUS), an area of research that comes under Sociology of Scientific Knowledge, can be of immense contribution to the dialogue between science and religion.

Hijab Hysteria

by maryam ismail

The National.ae

Can we ever get over hijab hysteria? I hope so. In this artilce I discuss the underhanded way in which the US... more Can we ever get over hijab hysteria? I hope so. In this artilce I discuss the underhanded way in which the US government is trying to control the Muslim woman's body.