Search results

'Legal cultures' in European countries have been under the twin pressures of moves towards 'European and international standards' on the one hand, and the 'war on terror' on the other—the first exerting pressure in a liberal direction, the second exerting pressure in an authoritarian direction. Data from focus groups and interviews with the general public and Muslim minorities provide insight into how the public in general, and Muslims in particular, have responded to the pressure of terrorism and the 'war on terror' in a spectrum of five countries ranging across Europe. Muslims have very different attitudes towards paying the price of the so-called 'war on terror', but our study suggests that attitudes towards that price are directly influenced more by 'risk assessment' than by religion.

Christian idol-worshippers and 'pagan survivals' -- Heretics, doubters and 'wrong-believing' -- A history of historians -- How Russian is 'double-belief'?

Andreas Mertin und Karin Wendt versetzen Unterrichtende, die nicht das Fach Kunst, sondern die Fächer Religion, Ethik, Philosophie oder Sozialkunde vertreten, in die Lage, zeitgenössische Kunst methodisch und didaktisch verantwortet in ihre Unterrichtsplanung einzubeziehen. Damit wird der reichhaltigen Ausstattung neuerer Schulbücher ebenso Rechnung getragen wie dem autonomen Kunstinteresse. Der Band vermittelt Hintergrundwissen zum modernen Kunstbetrieb und demonstriert anhand zahlreicher praktischer Beispiele, wie Kunst den Horizont für religiöse, ethische und philosophische Unterrichtsthemen weitet. In neueren Schulbüchern für Fächer wie Religion und Ethik wird auf eine reichhaltige Ausstattung mit Abbildungen moderner und zeitgenössischer Kunst Wert gelegt. Meistens fehlt jedoch die entsprechende Hilfestellung für die Unterrichtenden. Mit der Frage, wie sie die Materialien im Unterricht einsetzen können, bleiben sie allein. Das Buch versetzt Unterrichtende in die Lage, mit Schülerinnen und Schülern in den Fächern Religion, Ethik, Philosophie und Sozialkunde mit zeitgenössischer Kunst zu arbeiten; es soll das nötige Hintergrundwissen vermitteln und anhand praktischer Beispiele die Möglichkeiten des Umgangs mit Kunst im Unterricht vor Augen führen. Es wendet sich nicht an Unterrichtende des Faches Kunst.

L'économiste a-t-il quelque chose à dire sur la religion ? Apparemment rien puisque, en principe, il ne s'occupe que d'intérêts matériels. D'où l'accusation fréquente qui voudrait que l' homo economicus n'ait que peu de rapports avec la réalité. Cet article, s'insurgeant contre une telle caricature, montre que la science économique est tout à fait capable d'analyser la religion avec ses propres outils, d'autant mieux qu'elle considère, sans se trahir, le besoin humain de donner. Il en résulte un nouvel éclairage des relations entre la religion et l'État, fort utile en ces temps où la question religieuse revient au premier plan de l'actualité .

"From athletes praising God to pastors using sport metaphors in the pulpit - the association between sport and religion is often considered incidental. Yet religion and sport have been tightly intertwined for millennia and continue to inform, shape, and critique one another. Moreover, sport, rather than being a solely secular activity, is one of the most important sites for debates over gender, race, capitalism, the media, and civil religion. Traditionally, scholarly writings on religion and sport have focused on the question of whether sport is a religion, using historical, philosophical, theological, and sociological insights to argue this matter. While these efforts sought to answer an important question, contemporary issues related to sports were neglected, such as globalization, commercialization, feminism, masculinity, critical race theory and the ethics of doping. This volume contains lively, up-to-date essays from leading figures in the field to fill this scholarly gap. It treats religion as an indispensable prism through which to view sports, and vice versa. This book is ideal for students approaching the topic of religion and sport. It will also be of interest to scholars studying sociology of religion, sociology of sport, religion and race, religion and gender, religion and politics, and sport in general"--

In the developed world, Israel is the only country without a civil option for regulating personal status. Determinants of changes in attitudes toward the introduction of the civil marriage in 1969–2009 among the Jewish population are the focus of this article. According to the Human Empowerment framework, the support for civil marriage should increase over time, and the younger generation should be more permissive than the older. However, despite growing support among all population groups, there is stagnation in the overall attitude due to changes in population composition. Being religious, the younger cohorts oppose the trend of permitting couples to marry any way they choose. Besides religiosity and traditionalism, this attitude can be predicted by national identity, education and being a 1990s immigrant from the former Soviet Union. The relative impact of the two demographic forces – the natural increase of the religious versus immigration – is analyzed. The article shows the relevance of internal and external national identity for the institution of civil marriage in Israel. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

One of the most important analyses of the rise of German nationalism was Koppel Pinson's Pietism as a Factor in the Rise of German Nationalism (1934). This study was one of the first to apply the methodology of Tawney, Dilthey, Troeltsch, and Weber to the analysis of early nationalism. Pinson held that the intellectual and social content of seventeenth–century Lutheran pietism "unknowingly" created many preconditions of the peculiar type of German nationalism that appeared in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Pinson argued that the qualities of pietism which were transferred to later German nationalism were strong emotional fervor, moral purity, the experience of conversion, and the cultivation of the German language. All social classes would be able to cultivate these spiritual aims, producing what Pinson called a general priesthood of believers, or salvation within and through the group. The identification of the qualities of the good German with those of the good Christian was for Pinson the crux of the process.

Thich Tri Quang has long been one of the most controversial actors in the history of the Vietnam War. Scholars on the right have argued that Tri Quang was in all likelihood a communist agent operating at the behest of Hanoi. Scholars on the left have argued that Tri Quang was a peaceful religious leader devoted to democracy and a rapid end to the war. This article argues that neither of these interpretations is persuasive. As American officials rightly concluded throughout the war, there was no compelling evidence to suggest that Tri Quang was a communist agent or in any way sympathetic to the goals of Hanoi or the NLF. Drawing on the extensive archival evidence of Tri Quang's conversations with American officials, it is apparent that Tri Quang was in fact strongly anti-communist and quite receptive to the use of American military power against North Vietnam and China. The main factor that led to conflict between the Buddhist movement and the Johnson administration was Tri Quang's insistence that the military regimes that followed Ngo Dinh Diem were hostile to Buddhism and incapable of leading the struggle against Communism to a successful conclusion. Thich Tri Quang's importance in understanding the course of the Vietnam War can hardly be underestimated. In the aftermath of President Ngo Dinh Diem's violent suppression of Buddhist protests in May 1963, Tri Quang played a major role in sparking and sustaining the long crisis that ultimately lead to Diem's removal from power in November 1963. Unwilling to return to the political sidelines after the murder of Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, Tri Quang continued to exert his great influence over the political life of South Vietnam by granting or withholding his support from the various military regimes that ruled the country between 1964 and 1966.

This thesis analyzes a gradual political transformation in Texas during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It specifically analyzes the political climate following the 2014 Midterm Elections by using the valuable context of past Texas political history. In spite of the massive setbacks of the 2014 election cycle, the Democratic Party may actually have a bright future in the state of Texas. Demographic and economic trends provide the party with an opportunity to make steady gains. But such progress will not happen automatically: Democrats have to run candidates and take positions that appeal to the emerging Texas electorate.

THIS THOUGHT-PROVOKING SYMPOSIUM ORIGINATED IN A small conference organized at the London School of Economics by Government and Opposition and the papers printed here have been revised — in many cases extensively — by their authors in the light of the discussion there. With a single exception (Sir Arthur Knight) all the contributors are members of the Editorial Board or the Advisory Board of Government and Opposition, and the idea for the symposium was first put forward by one of the Editors, Professor Isabel de Madariaga.The central issue addressed in the symposium is the adequacy or otherwise of the sciences, natural and social, in providing the information required by people in various capacities — as citizens, business leaders, politicians, judges, and so on — if they are to act intelligently.