Religious Pluralism

From Transumanar to Transcendental Anthropology: Rahner and Dante

by George Archer

A Review of John Renard’s Islam and Christianity: Theological Themes in Comparative Perspective

by George Archer

A Review of John Renard’s Islam and Christianity: Theological Themes in Comparative Perspective A Review of John Renard’s Islam and Christianity: Theological Themes in Comparative Perspective

Does the Priest Have to Be There? Contested Marriages Before Roman Tribunals. Italy, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries. In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften, 3, 2009, 10-30.

by Cecilia Cristellon

The Council of Trent established the requirements that a marriage be celebrated by the parish priest and two or more... more The Council of Trent established the requirements that a marriage be celebrated by the parish priest and two or more witnesses be present at the marriage (1563), but neglected to specify who the parish priest was. The decrees provoked confusion among both laymen and churchmen. Traces thereof can be found in the hitherto essentially unexplored documentation of The Congregation of the Council. This institution was founded in 1564 specifically to resolve the questions that arose all over the catholic world by the application of the decrees promulgated at Trent. The related records are held in the Vatican Secret Archive. Through an examination of this documentation, complemented by files of the Holy Office the author analyzes how the new rules were understood, experienced, used, circumvented, and manipulated both by laymen and churchmen in order to end an unwanted marriage, to facilitate a union that was socially transgressive, opposed by family, or even heterodox, and to respond to pastoral concerns.

Religious Pluralism in Recent African Constitutional Reform

by M. Christian Green

Journal of Law and Religion (accepted for publication, forthcoming Spring 2013)

Something unexpected has been happening in Africa—and not just Northern Africa, which, along with the Middle East, has... more Something unexpected has been happening in Africa—and not just Northern Africa, which, along with the Middle East, has seen a winter and spring of revolution in 2011. Over the last several years, several sub-Saharan African nations have managed to conduct elections, produce new constitutions, and even partition themselves in relative peace, despite the often dire predictions of foreign governments, media, and election-monitoring organizations. In each of these cases, religion and religious freedom were high-profile concerns, but despite conventional assumptions about the propensity for religious contestation to lead to conflict, the constitutional procedures seem, at least in the near term, to have unfolded peacefully and productively. While the specter of rising Islamist movements in North Africa has led some to view the specifically religious dimensions of the revolutions with caution, religious actors are playing important and often positive roles in the referenda and new constitutions. Even so, as detailed in this paper issues of religious freedom, sharia courts, Muslim-Christian relations, and the relation of religion and state have been key concerns in the new constitutionalism. Countries in focus include Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, with brief reference to developments in Nigeria and South Sudan.

Missionaria o in pericolo di apostasia? Donne cattoliche e matrimoni misti nei dibattiti del Sant’Ufficio, in: Famiglia e religione nella prima eta` moderna. Saggi in onore di Silvana Seidel Menchi, Hg. Ciappelli, G., Luzzi, S., Rospocher, M. (Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2011), 175-186.

by Cecilia Cristellon

In pursuit of the pagans: Muslim law in the English context

by Prakash Shah

Western and Muslim law. Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks’, and in the... more Western and Muslim law. Muslim law is itself a complex, pluralistic amalgam of different legal ‘bricks’, and in the context of the struggle for Islam to be acknowledged as a legitimate source of value pluralism in the Western context, the religious aspects of Muslim law, with their doctrinal justifications, are being foregrounded. With the English case as the main focus, I further argue that customs among Muslims are suppressed in this process of ‘shariatisation’. Beyond that, even Muslim doctrines are being placed under the spotlight in various ways. These changes are taking place as a result of Muslims living as nondominant communities in Europe, where they are under the gaze of the dominant culture and are judged to be potential or actual violators of human rights and the rule of law. Relying on Balagangadhara’s (2005) explanation of the ‘dynamic of religion’, I present these processes as an outcome of the collision of two religious cultures, the Islamic and the Western.

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.

Cultural Pluralism and the Virtues of Hypotheses. la Torre Del Virrey, Revista de Estudios Culturales (2008) :33-38.

by H.G. Callaway

This paper focuses on the preliminary evaluation of expressions of moral sentiment under conditions of cultural... more This paper focuses on the preliminary evaluation of expressions of moral sentiment under conditions of cultural pluralism. The advance of science and technology puts ever new power over nature in human hands, and if this new power is to more fully serve human ends, then it must become the means or material of human virtue. This prospect poses the question of the relationship between power and virtue, and equally, the question of how scientific advances may be understood to enter into a pluralism of moral doctrines and deliberations. Taking a page from the philosophy of science, the present approach examines the relationship between scientific advances and moral evaluations of developing practices as mediated by contemporary accounts of the virtues of hypotheses. If we conceive of expressions of moral sentiment as hypotheses for the amendment or expansion of existing moral doctrines in the light of new possibilities for action, then this suggests that expressions of moral sentiment may be evaluated, in a preliminary way, by reference to standard lists of the virtues of hypotheses: refutability, conservatism, modesty or simplicity, precision, elegance, and generality. Expressions of moral sentiment are subject to preliminary evaluation, on cognitive grounds, by reference to their prospective integration and/or modification of on-going moral traditions.

Review of THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY ed. Chad Meister (Oxford University Press, 2011)

by Amir Dastmalchian

published in RELIGIOUS STUDIES
2012, vol. 48 (FirstView)
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Origini e varianti medievali della parabola dei tre anelli

by Alessandro La Monica

2012 (?)

Riesamina le varianti del noto apologo narrato, tra gli altri, da Boccaccio (Dec., I, 3). Propone una lontana... more Riesamina le varianti del noto apologo narrato, tra gli altri, da Boccaccio (Dec., I, 3). Propone una lontana ascendenza persiana sulla basi di alcuni testi sufi e cita un Cuento de los tres anillos risalente all'XI secolo attribuito a Jehudah ha-Lewi.

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.

"Absolutism to Ultimacy: Rhetoric and Reality of Religious Pluralism." in Theological Studies 73, no. 1 (2012): 55-81.

by George Karuvelil

redistributions du travail funéraire et transformations de la chaîne opératoire du cadavre dans le Bénin méridional

by Joël Noret

forthcoming in Hervé Guy (ed.), Rencontre autour du cadavre, 2012.

Cet article entend montrer combien les transformations de la chaîne opératoire du cadavre dans le Bénin méridional... more Cet article entend montrer combien les transformations de la chaîne opératoire du cadavre dans le Bénin méridional s’avèrent révélatrices d’évolutions plus générales dans l’ordre de la prise en charge de la mort et, finalement, puisque les deux sont toujours peu ou prou liés, dans l’organisation des rapports sociaux. À cet égard, envisager le changement social, en prenant pour point de départ les transformations de la chaîne opératoire du cadavre, peut d’ailleurs s’avérer une entrée épistémologique féconde, car, si le corps est bien ce « premier lieu du social », pour reprendre l’heureuse formule de Gil Bartholeyns , le cadavre peut légitimement être considéré comme un double particulièrement éloquent de celui-ci, relevant, comme lui, à la fois pleinement du biologique et du social, et de leurs nouages complexes.
Plus spécifiquement, dans la sociologie historique du cadavre que je propose dans les pages qui suivent, je partirai de deux ressorts de la transformation de l’apprêt des corps, qui me sont apparus comme majeurs, au cours de mes enquêtes sur les funérailles dans le Bénin méridional. Ainsi, j’évoquerai, dans un premier temps, les effets du changement religieux sur le traitement des cadavres, dont une proportion croissante échappe désormais aux mains des spécialistes « traditionnels » de la gestion des corps. Dans un deuxième temps, je montrerai la place occupée dorénavant par les morgues dans la prise en charge de la mort et les déplacements significatifs que cette innovation technologique a contribué à diffuser dans la chaîne opératoire du cadavre.

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.

Gestión de la diversidad religiosa en el ámbito sanitario catalán

by Gloria García-Romeral

Co-authored with Griera, Maria M. and Forteza, Maria
Published in Inguruak, 2007

El respeto a las creencias, así como la atención espiritual son derechos reconocidos a todos los pacientes que se... more El respeto a las creencias, así como la atención espiritual son derechos reconocidos a todos los pacientes que se encuentran internos en un centro hospitalario del Estado español. Estos derechos se regularon y concretaron en 1985 en un acuerdo con la Iglesia Católica que, desde aquel momento, sería la encargada de ofrecer esta atención espiritual. Sin embargo, los cambios que se han ido sucediendo en nuestra sociedad obligan a replantearnos el modelo de atención religiosa en el ámbito sanitario. El monopolio católico se ha desmoronado y actualmente en nuestra sociedad coexisten un amplio abanico de confesiones religiosas con requerimientos y demandas específicas en relación al rol de las religiones en la esfera pública. Unas demandas que suponen nuevos retos para la gestión y funcionamiento de las administraciones públicas e instituciones sociales.

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

Rezension von: C. Scott Dixon, Dagmar Freist, Mark Greengrass (Hg.): Living with Religious Diversity in Early-Modern Europe, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009

by Eric Piltz

in: sehepunkte 11 (2011), Nr. 2 [15.02.2011]

in publications of ISEAS, Singapore

by Shamsul AB

John Hick, The Fifth Dimension: An Exploration of the Spiritual RealmHick, John. The Fifth Dimension: An Exploration of the Spiritual Realm. Oxford: …

by Jeffery Long

Cosmopolitanism and the deeply religious

by Michael Merry