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In this article we intend undertake a reading of ancient judaism, or veterotestamentary, in some of its main aspects, in contrast to the Machiavellian view of the role of religion in the organization and expansion of the State. The first step of this enterprise will be given by exposing the founding and delineanting features of the ancient Jewish tradition, especially in the books that make up the so-called Old Testament, demonstranting the using of religion in the ordination and expansion of the State, as well as in the formation of the individual. In a second moment we will demonstrate how to create a new Jewish tradition, influenced and influential on the ancient Greek world, early in the Christian era which will be assimilated and explored in its mystical bias in Renaissance humanism. This Hellenistic Judaism tradition will be best known and assimilated in the European erudite circles of the Renaissance. Finally, we will try to demonstrate how the constitutive features of ancient Judaism, to the detriment of Hellenistic Judaism, can be read in the light of Machiavellian description of the role of religion in the organization and expansion of the State and the formation of the individual.

Islamism is not an abstract formula of Islamic faith, or even an excess of Islam. It comes from that context, yet in another level. This article will analyse it as a movement that, like any other social and political movement, has a certain doctrine and look for inspiration in a secular ideology that uses specific forms of political action to be succeeded. However, there is a difference: it is an ideology with religious precepts that become an immediate praxis, i.e., these precepts are reduced to instruments of analysis of social and political conflicts, thus justifying the dynamics political hostile political takeover. Islamism is a political ideology when forges governing formulas, based on the Quran, that demand the establishment of an Islamic state. It remains to determine the influence of religion in this political ideology. Adapted from the source document.

With this paper, we intend to understand what theoretical and empirical strategies allow us to measure the centrality and intensity of traditional religious meanings, as well as its more plural and diffuse modern expressions, in the individuals' life, in the first decade and a half of the twenty-first century. For that purpose, we offer a conceptualization and measurement model of religion - an index of religiosity - that we consider being effective and adequate to describe and measure its manifold contemporary expressions and dimensions. In order to build our index, we drew on some of the existing patterns of measurement, namely Huber & Huber's work, and on three specific statistical databases: the European Values Survey (1999-2008), the European Social Survey (2002-2014), and the World Christian Database (2015). To go beyond the theoretical constructs and the standardization of a religiosity index, we analyze and measure religion in a specific group of European countries and we compare the various levels of religiosity among them.

Although generally considered a tolerant or even an ultra-pacifistic religion,
contemporary Buddhism is far from being free from internal political-religious tensions.
The present article sketches three conflicts: the first is located within the Kagyüpaline
where two sub-currents argue about the legitimacy of the spiritual leader of the
school; the second refers to the controversy over Dorje Shugden, a protective deity whose veneration was declared dangerous by the Dalai Lama and other leaders of the Guelugpa-school in opposition to the defenders of this religious practice; the third one is the dispute over Soka Gakkai whose status as a modern representative of Nichiren Buddhism is questioned by other Japanese Buddhist groups. After having laid out the basic characteristics of the three conflicts the article deals with their impact on contemporary Brazilian Buddhism.

Radical pan-Islamism is a serious threat to universal secularism, the central norm of international order since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. International secularism rests on two principles: firstly, the organization of religion within states is subject to their sovereignty & not to supranational or transnational revolutionary movements, & secondly, religion must not determine the foreign policies & the alliances of the state. The resurgence of pan-Islamic radicalism since September 11, 2001 as a central issue in world politics challenges both principles. Adapted from the source document.

In this essay, we are mostly interested in Islamism as a phenomenon that affects the European epistemic community dealing with security issues. As Raymond Aron often remarked, the work of the political scientist is about destroying the myths that surround both politicians and intellectuals. According to this, we aim to clarify the language and the narratives used in the current debate on European Islamism. Hence, we will divide our essay into three parts: codification of the general characteristics of Islamism as an ideology; description of how European Islamism acts among European societies; and finally we develop an analytical perspective on the issue, by refusing the dominant paradigm, which we believe too biased by an excess of communitarian and religious identity. Adapted from the source document.

The issue of religious freedom is included in one of the greatest challenges faced by Beijing: human rights. In this article we will analyze China's approach towards international human rights' documents as well as its domestic perspective characterized by the reinforcement of sovereignty & rights of citizens & the manipulation of Law. In China, religion is a phenomenon that the government tries to control & repress in many ways. We have chosen to look at Catholicism because this is a religion that poses special challenges to Beijing & shows us how the human spirit is able to survive even in the most adverse conditions. Adapted from the source document.

This article aims to analyze the apparent contradiction between the institution of censorship in the Social Contract of Rousseau and the censorship he suffered in Geneva and Paris. With this aim, we will analyze the concept of censorship in the Social Contract and the Rousseau's arguments in the works: Letters of the Mountain and the Letter to Christophe Beaumont, supported in the work of some experts on Rousseau's political work. Our studies allow us to conclude Jean-Jacques Rousseau does in fact, admit the possibility of censorship; however, the action of the censors must be restricted by public opinion, just like the prince's actions by the laws. In addition, if there is a similar process it should meet all the requirements of the civil law of the State where censorship takes place. Both in Paris and in Geneva Rousseau disagrees with the way they dealt with him and his works.