Search results

The question of language is decisive through the impressive Llull's work, and it is so also when he offers an interreligious disputatio and a political allegorization. All this accent is noted in the Llibre del gentil e dels tres savis and in the Llibre de les bèsties, with rhetorically different but effective resources. This paper pretends to show the importance of these works to achieve, by means of diverse linguistic styles, the everlasting purpose of Llull: to argue the Christian truth and to convert the people that not yet accept that. ; Es capital, en toda la monumental obra de Llull, la forma lingüística de plantear la disputatio interreligiosa y la alegorización política. Todo esto se aprecia en el Llibre del gentil e dels tres savis y en el Llibre de les bèsties, con distintos pero retóricamente eficaces recursos. Esta breve comunicación está dedicada a mostrar la importancia de estas obras para cumplir mediante variadísimos estilos lingüísticos con el sempiterno propósito luliano de argumentar la verdad cristiana y convertir a los que aún no la han aceptado.

AbstractFor centuries, Rome and Istanbul have been representing and epitomizing two empires and two entities with both significant spiritual and temporal power: the Papacy and the Caliphate. During the 19th and the 20th centuries, these institutions underwent significant changes in a context of state secularization: in the case of the Papacy, there was a loss of temporal power and its "reduction" to a mainly moral authority; the Caliphate, on the other hand, was abolished after World War I, succeeded by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), a bureaucratic body under state control, founded in the era of Kemalist secularism. Despite these changes, today both institutions still play a significant role in the public life and public policies of the Italian and the Turkish republics. While the Vatican is able to influence the Italian public sphere and public discourse through both its influence on common people and its lobbying activities in relation to political decision-makers, in Turkey the Diyanet has become the main tool in the reshaping of Turkish society (both by the Kemalists and, later, by Erdoğan's AKP). This paper will analyze their influence on the two countries' public policies in relation to religious pluralism and to family-related issues, to show how different ideas of secularism, institutional arrangements, and historical paths have led to a very different role of the two institutions in the Italian and Turkish political systems.

Neben den ethnischen Minoritäten tragen die unterschiedlichen religiösen Gruppierungen zur Unsicherheit und Destabilisierung der sudanesischen Politik bei. Sie determinieren eine Parteilandschaft, die ein demokratisches, liberales System, wie es durch die Wahlen vom April 1986 bestätigt wurde, verhindern. (SJ)

This article explores the emergent politics of the 21st century through an analysis of the interactions of media and religion in these relations. It argues that to fully understand the dynamics underlying the new forms of populism emerging across the globe, it is necessary to account for them as movements of religious nationalism encompassing race, gender, and nostalgia, made possible by modern media imaginaries. The article argues that disciplined and substantive work on religion remains a lacuna within media and cultural studies, and that its explorations provide an example of how such work could address this critical gap. It concludes by suggesting a specific theoretical approach rooted in its consideration of relations of religion and media: that we think of media texts that circulate in these discourses of religious nationalism as "affective infrastructures" that do important work in making unstable and contradictory imaginaries possible and weaponizing them to political purpose.

AbstractThis paper examines the Holy See as a political actor amid hard power conflict. While many debate the legal and religious personalities of the Holy See, few engage with an approach that illustrates the Holy See and its citizen-like laity in light of its combinative religious–political dynamic. This paper argues that resulting from this dynamic, the Holy See's sui generis statehood enables the comprehension of a similar sui generis citizenry. These citizens, which this paper labels pseudo-citizens, are the result of connections between the recognized sovereignty of the Holy See and its role over the Roman Catholic Church. This paper examines this connection contextually amid the Holy See's interaction with the underlying international moral framework on just conflict and the protective motivating factors associated with its pseudo-citizens. This motivation is consistent with historical Holy See positions, and is significant for understanding the Holy See's approach amid future hard power events.

AbstractThis study examines the religious-secular party cleavage in German morality politics from a new perspective by tracing politicization patterns at the individual level. It builds on the idea of issue competition and explores whether conflicts between Christian Democrats and secular parties align with the traditional denominational divide between Catholics and non-Catholics or with religiosity. By means of logistic regressions of Member of Parliaments' politicization behavior in the German Bundestag (1998–2002) with regard to three morality policies, the study provides evidence that German politics is still structured by a conflict between Catholics and non-Catholics, whereas the influence of religiosity is secondary. If party competition is at work, non-Catholics draw attention to morality policies, while Catholics refrain from doing so. This finding contradicts research pointing to a decreasing significance of Catholicism for Christian Democracy. Moreover, the study proposes an innovative way to re-examine party cleavages at the individual level and in between elections.