Suchergebnisse

The aim of this paper is to examine how religion and ethnicity can help bring about national integration in Nigeria. Nigeria became an independent nation in 1960 with the hope that Nigerians will be integrated with one another for the purposes of co-existence, administration, and development of the nation. But this seems to be difficult. Since the colonial periods and up till now, there have been ethnic and religious crises that made the concept of national integration seem impossible. Ethno-religious crises in Nigeria are deeply rooted and is threatening the very survival of the country as a nation. Often times are intra and inter religious crises. The question is: how can this violence work for national unity, integration and development? It has negative consequences on the socio- economic and political lives of the people. To the extent that matters which ought to have been resolved are unnecessarily ethicized. It is obvious that the grievances which normally aggravate ethnic religious crises are most often than not revealed through sectarian crises, tribal unrest, bitter political complaints, and violent insurgents, among others. However, the question of national integration is of necessity and not a matter of choice. The study used historical method of analysis for optimal results. The findings reveal that there has been ethnic and religious crises in the country since its inception as an independent nation and the need for the pursuit on the issue in order to proffer lasting solution to check mate the disintegration that may be raised by ethno-religious disturbances. The study recommends among others that the subject of national integration should not be overlooked, but rather it should be encouraged, embraced and put into practice by Nigerians in order to promote unity, integration and national development in the country.

Although the George W. Bush administration has utilized religion to support its foreign policy agenda & advocacy of global democracy, it is stressed that previous administrations have utilized religious rhetoric & metaphors to advance the international spread of liberty. Three religious features of US religious rhetoric are identified: the US is a chosen nation; the US possesses a mission to transform the world; & the US represents the forces of good in the struggle against evil. The origins of US religious rhetoric in national politics & foreign policy are traced back to 17th century Protestant millennialism imported from Western Europe; even though Protestant millennialism is grounded upon an apocalyptic religious mentality, scrutiny of historical US foreign policy demonstrated that success in international relations & foreign policy was frequently predicated on an non-cataclysmic understanding of the US's position within the global order. It is subsequently asserted that the Bush administrations foreign policy agenda has embraced a millennialist mentality but that this perspective has failed to achieve democratization via apocalyptic confrontation throughout the Middle East. The consequences of the Bush administrations inability to recognize its foreign policy failures are also pondered. J. W. Parker

This article reviews Bob Tollison's conjoint contributions to the burgeoning area of the economics of religion, underscoring his integration of public choice and interest-group themes into the microeconomic analysis of faith-based organizational architecture, institutional decision making and doctrinal innovation. Beginning with study of the medieval Catholic Church, moving forward to the Protestant Reformation and beyond, it supplies a timeline of developments and the major findings of each phase of his research program. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractUsing data from the American National Election Studies, Poole-Rosenthal DW-Nominate scores, and data on the religious affiliations of members of the United States House of Representatives, I show that religion has important independent effects on the evaluation of candidates' ideologies. The results suggest that candidates affiliated with evangelical Christianity will tend to be seen as more conservative than ideologically similar candidates from mainline Protestant denominations. Jewish candidates, in contrast, will tend to be seen as more liberal than ideologically similar mainline Protestants. Additionally, the use of religion-based stereotypes varies with frequency of church attendance. These findings attest to the external validity of recent experiment-based research on religion-based political stereotypes. The approach employed here also allows for the estimation of the magnitude of the effects of such stereotypes. The results shed light on both the importance of religion in election campaigns and the factors that influence perceptions of candidates' ideologies more generally.

Appropriating Gender explores the paradoxical relationship of women to religious politics in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Contrary to the hopes of feminists, many women have responded to religious nationalist appeals; contrary to the hopes of religious nationalists, they have also asserted their gender, class, caste, and religious identities; contrary to the hopes of nation states, they have often challenged state policies and practices. Through a comparative South Asia perspective, Appropriating Gender explores the varied meanings and expressions of gender identity through time

Modern British intellectual history has been a particularly flourishing field of enquiry in recent years, and these two tightly integrated volumes contain major new essays by almost all of its leading proponents. The contributors examine the history of British ideas over the past two centuries from a number of perspectives that together constitute a major new overview of the subject. History, Religion, and Culture begins with eighteenth-century historiography, especially Gibbon's Decline and Fall. It takes up different aspects of the place of religion in nineteenth-century cultural and political life, such as attitudes towards the native religions of India, the Victorian perception of Oliver Cromwell, and the religious sensibility of John Ruskin. Finally, in discussions which range up to the middle of the twentieth century, the volume explores relations between scientific ideas about change or development and assumptions about the nature and growth of the national community.

Christian fundamentalists. Hindu nationalists. Islamic jihadists. Buddhist militants. Jewish extremists. Members of these and other religious groups have committed horrific acts of terrorist violence in recent decades. How is this possible? How do individuals use their religious beliefs to justify such actions? How do they manipulate the language and symbols of their faith to motivate others to commit violence in the name of the divine? Phil Gurski addresses these essential questions as he explores violent extremism across a broad range of the world's major religions.