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Religion education (RE) in the public school in Denmark, as in many countries, is often subject to political, public and professional debate, relating not only to different ideas about RE's potential contribution to Allgemeinbildung, religious and/or moral formation and citizenship education, but also to reactions or responses to what is perceived as challenges posed by supranational processes such as globalization, individualization, and migration, including a new and growing Muslim presence. Based on an academic Study of Religions approach, defined in contrast to confessional RE, the article outlines relevant political processes and political, public and professional debates on RE, and analyzes the way they have set their mark in past and present Danish education legislation, national curricula and guidelines issued by the state for RE and for the training of RE teachers. Whereas a study-of-religions approach has long been seen as a 'natural' framework for RE in the upper-secondary school, RE in the compulsory school (as well as in teacher education for these schools) has traditionally been linked to theology, and is often seen as an instrument in political and ideological efforts to promote and secure a social and national-cultural identity, an identity defined with reference to the majority religion. RE is thus thrust into a key role in on-going 'culture wars'.

This article focuses on framing the thought of Abdurrahman Wahid on reli- gious pluralism. Gus Dur-his familiar name, is a figure of the Muslim scholars, clerics, and also a politician who has a considerable influence in the national life in Indonesia. The idea of religious pluralism was offered by Gus Dur calls for recognition of the equal right to claim the truth of any religion by its followers, respectively. For Gus Dur difference faith/theology should not affect the enforce- ment of justice. Ever y religion should receive equal treatment before the law; hence neither group feels superior to the other.The author argues that the research on the views of Gus Dur is ver y important to see what is meant by religious pluralism. From this study we can also see the mapping of what Gus Dur strug gled in upholding religious pluralism. By using critical-thinking approach, Gus Dur's tought will be dissected to obtain a com- prehensive understanding of the globalizing thought of Gus Dur which covering various aspects of life, not only limited in political issues, the relationship be- tween religion and the state as well as inter-religious relations. The result can be described that there are three focuses of Wahid fought in the religious pluralism, namely equality of religions, tolerance and interfaith and inter-religious dialog.

Being a Christian in the Middle East today is a hard task. The dramatic political changes over the past century have torn Christianity in parties that confuse religious and political causes. My contribution will investigate one of the most sensitive issues that touch the coexistence of religions in the Middle East: the idea of choice and the status of the Jewish people in Christian theology. This serious issue appeared in the beginnings of Christianity and belongs to the very core message of the New Testament. The most important texts about the continuity and discontinuity of the election of the Jews by God are certainly in Romans 9-11. From the infamous Holocaust and the proclamation of the modern state of Israel, there has been a lively discussion among scholars of the Bible in the West about Rom 9-11, about how to define the role of "Israel" in Christianity. In the context of Rom 9-11, there is a special paragraph about the choice of the people of God that has deeply marked Christianity: the image of the olive tree (Rom 11,16b-24). Here the Apostle illustrates his vision of God's people referring to this as an olive tree. This article will attempt to interpret this explanation of Paul, because it is the clearest and most didactic.

Introduction In his study The Sanctuary of Silence (1995), Israel Knohl states that the Priestly Code (P) seeks "to maintain an interior' 'holy kingdom' alongside the broader political structure."1 To him, this "'holy kingdom' disregards not only the sphere of political power (.) but the entire social-judicial realm as well."2 In his depiction of the relationship between the priests and the people, Knohl refers to the description of the manufacture of the tent, the tabernacle (miškkan) and its equipment (Exod 25-40), the priestly tasks (Lev 1-16), as well as some of the priestly accessories like Urim and Thummim.3 The detachment from all kinds of political and social legislation that Knohl claims for the theology of Priestly Code does not, however, according to him, hold true for the so-called 'Holiness School' (HS). As a corollary, Knohl sees the main differences between the Priestly Code and HS (inter alia) in HS's postulate of a special relationship between God and Israel,4 expressed in HS as a covenant (bĕrit5), based "on a unique relation of reciprocity."6 Knohl argues, that, in contrary to P, HS blends the cultic concept of holiness with a social awareness and moral concerns,7 thereby trying to abate the sharp disjunction of cultic affairs from moral commands as laid out in P.

Secara umum bahwa pola dasar yang dihadapi politik Islam dalam hubungannya dengan negara adalah adanya kesulitan untuk membangun sintesis yang memungkinkan di antara keduanya. Faktor utama yang menyebabkan kemandegan politik ini adalah keinginan para pemikir dan aktivis politik Islam untuk membangun hubungan Islam dan Negara secara legalistik dan formalistik. Proses politik dan aktivisme Islam dari beberapa gerakan yang ada khususnya pasca reformasi telah memberikan warna tersendiri terhadap perpolitikan di Indonesia.ABSTRACTIslam at most cases is frequently considered more than a religion per se. This is reinforced by the emergence of different schools of jurisprudence, theology, and Islamic philosophy, which indicates the multi-interpretative Islamic teachings. This multi-interpretative character of Islam has served as the basis of Islamic elasticity within its long history. Furthermore, this character also indicates the presence of pluralism in Islamic tradition. This has always been a challenge as well as surging classic debate in Islamic activism and in developing future democratization. Islam as Muslims believe has shaped Islamic movements in their national and democratic life. The core of such a view lies deep inside human consciousness that religion should actually work within the very human life instead of being formally acknowledged to rule the life of human beings as certain nation citizens.

In 2011 the author taught, for the first time, the well-established unit CCA3101/4101 Environmental Humanities in the School of Communications and Arts at ECU (Edith Cowan University) in Western Australia. The unit has a 20-year history through associate professor Rod Giblett and parallels the development of the environmental humanities as a field in Australia, advanced since the 1990s by environmental scholars Deborah Bird Rose, Val Plumwood, Libby Robin, and Rod Giblett. The interdisciplinary field represents growing scholarly interest in the ecological aspects of humanities disciplinesincluding literature, visual arts, theology, philosophy, and cultural studies—and the development of humanities-based approaches for addressing environmental problems. In this paper, the author argues that the CCA3101/4101 unit is a key ecopedagogical resource, particularly with regard to ECU's recent development of sustainability as a core institutional value. The ecopedagogical principle of critical environmental awareness through radical political theory is a point of intersection with CCA3101/4101. The unit challenges students to analyze the political underpinnings of nature and its representations in the media. The author argues for the complementarity between the environmental humanities and ecopedagogy through the following themes found in the unit: (1) nature as a contested political construction; (2) bioregional and place-based awareness; and (3) equity focus, particularly through aboriginal Australian perspectives on the environment.

The political situation in 17th Century Hispanic colonial societies has been littlestudied and is very often poorly understood. One possible reason for this situation is related to a lack of understanding of the nexus between the prevailing political situation and the theology of the church, as expressed by its colonial clergy. This essay presents a first attempt at comprehending aspects of the prevailing theological disputes and the resulting confrontations between the religious orders within the Catholic Church. Central to the struggle was the dogma of the immaculate conception. The manner in which the general populous and the notables were involved in these competing theological influences had an important influence on the politics of colonial America. ; La política del siglo XVII en las sociedades coloniales de Hispanoamérica hasido poco estudiada y mal comprendida. La razón de ello consiste, posiblemente,en su rareza y originalidad, en las formas como se liga con la teología y con lasactividades de los hombres de la Iglesia. Lo que se presenta aquí es un intento de comprensión de aspectos de ese mundo político tradicional, examinando losenfrentamientos entre órdenes religiosas en torno al dogma de la inmaculada concepción de María y la manera como en torno de esas disputas eran encuadradas las gentes populares de la ciudad, pero no menos los notables.

During the Tang Dynasty, officials, who are often described as "Confucians," were involved in policies that aimed at controlling the religious congregations of Buddhism and Daoism. At the same time, pseudo-religious free-riders, the so called fangshi ("esoteric experts"), regularly appeared at the court and lured the emperor away from government business by pretending to support his search for immortality with their methods. They thereby constituted a threat to the claim of the officials to a monopoly on sharing the imperial power. Furthermore, officials saw themselves as transmitters of a "civil religion" or theology" of correct governance, which was not limited to the Confucian canon, but embraced other figures such as Laozi and the Yellow Emperor as well. My essay takes Li Deyu (787–850) as an example, who was one of the most prominent officials of the Tang Dynasty and served as chancellor during the severest religious persecution in Chinese history. I show how he drew arguments from historiographic and philosophical sources, in order to bolster his position against Daoists or fangshi and protect the civil religion. I will further show how he flexibly used rhetorical strategies to support the persecution of Buddhism on the one hand, and to justify the compatibility of Buddhism with Confucian and Daoist ethics on the other.

During the Tang Dynasty, officials, who are often described as "Confucians," were involved in policies that aimed at controlling the religious congregations of Buddhism and Daoism. At the same time, pseudo-religious free-riders, the so called fangshi ("esoteric experts"), regularly appeared at the court and lured the emperor away from government business by pretending to support his search for immortality with their methods. They thereby constituted a threat to the claim of the officials to a monopoly on sharing the imperial power. Furthermore, officials saw themselves as transmitters of a "civil religion" or theology" of correct governance, which was not limited to the Confucian canon, but embraced other figures such as Laozi and the Yellow Emperor as well. My essay takes Li Deyu (787–850) as an example, who was one of the most prominent officials of the Tang Dynasty and served as chancellor during the severest religious persecution in Chinese history. I show how he drew arguments from historiographic and philosophical sources, in order to bolster his position against Daoists or fangshi and protect the civil religion. I will further show how he flexibly used rhetorical strategies to support the persecution of Buddhism on the one hand, and to justify the compatibility of Buddhism with Confucian and Daoist ethics on the other.

El concepto filosófico de persona tiene un protagonismo destacado tanto en la comprensión del ser humano como en los más importantes debates modernos sobre ética, política y derecho. En este artículo vamos a analizar algunos aspectos de la idea de persona, seguir el camino en búsqueda de su genealogía, sobre todo en el ámbito más importante de elaboración de este concepto, el debate cristiano sobre la teología trinitaria. Nuestro desafió será acompañar el esfuerzo de algunos intelectuales en la búsqueda de solucionar la tensión dialéctica entre lo que es propio del individuo y lo que es común a todos. Nos ocuparemos en este caso de las elaboraciones de Boecio, Ricardo de San Víctor y Escoto al respecto ; The philosophical concept of person has a prominent role both in understanding the human being asmost important in modern debates about ethics, politics and law. In this article we'll discuss some aspectsof the idea of person, following the path in search of their genealogy, especially in the most important areaof developing this concept, the Christian debate on Trinitarian theology. Our challenge will be to supportthe efforts of some intellectuals in seeking to resolve the dialectical tension between what is proper to theindividual and what is common to all. We'll dedicate in this case to the work of Boethius, Richard of St.Victor and Scotus on this matter

Carl Wilkens is a peace activist and an educator who headed up the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International in Rwanda (ADRA). He was the only American who chose to remain in Kigali, Rwanda during the genocide of 1994. His choice to remain in the country during that time of brutal atrocities resulted in the prevention of the murder of hundreds of children. Wilkens was featured in Frontline's "Ghosts of Rwanda" and in "The Few Who Stayed: Defying Genocide," an American Radio Works documentary broadcast on National Public Radio. He has received several humanitarian awards, including awards from Saint John's School of Theology Seminary and the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. He is a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor who devotes much of his time to promoting activism for peace. Wilkens and his wife, Teresa, founded World Outside My Shoes (see http://worldoutsidemyshoes.org), a nonprofit educational and professional organization committed to inspiring and equipping people to enter the world of "the other," which Wilkens indicates may be under our own roof or on the other side of the globe. The Wilkenses also started Pedaling for Peace (pedaling2Peace.org) and travel around the United States sharing their stories of hope. Jerri Shepard, Associate Professor in the School of Education at Gonzaga University, spoke with Wilkens on June 8, 2010.

This article explores tales and tropes of conversion, especially conversion engendered by romantic attraction for the religious other, in the poetry ofFarīd al-Dīn 'Attār. The plot dynamics of class, gender and confessional adherence are complex, and hold important clues to the poet's theology. One particularly rich example of the encoding of religious and social boundaries can be found in a body of ghazals written about the beautiful Christian boy (tarsā-bachcha). The history of this homoerotic sub-genre is traced, and 'Attār's treatment of the theme is explored in juxtaposition not only to earlier authors, but to other motifs of the religious other and of religious conversion, appearing in his own oeuvre, including the narrative of Shaykh San'ān with its representation of the Christian girl beloved. The terminology of Christianity and the markers by which 'Attār construes Christian-ness are discussed, and these symbolically amorous encounters with Christianity are analyzed as part of a larger discourse of emasculation which 'Attār constructs around conversion, religious affiliation, and insufficient commitment to spiritual growth. Analysis of the dynamic interplay of markers of gender and class in the tales and topoi dealing with religious conversion or cross-confessional interaction will ultimately afford a perspective into 'Attār's conception of the specific religious traditions juxtaposed to Islam, as well as his beliefs about inter-religious relations.

When assessing the Congress of Industrial Organization's (CIO) postwar Southern Organizing Campaign, evangelical Protestantism shows up only on the debit side of the historians' ledger. Focus on anti-union hate sheets like Militant Truth and Gospel Trumpet conveniently substitutes for analysis of the shifting religious terrain of the South. In contrast, we argue that the potential for a sympathetic hearing from southern religious leaders was greater than scholars have previously believed, but that the CIO staff responsible for interpreting Operation Dixie's mission misunderstood the creeds and the theology of the most vibrant southern churches. By choosing individuals who boasted of their endorsement by the liberal Federal Council of Churches, the CIO incurred the wrath of southern denominations that had supported collective bargaining and an employee's right to join unions just a few years earlier. This missed opportunity is not the entire story, however. We also argue that the CIO's religious activists often challenged the Southern Organizing Campaign to promote racial equality and desegregation even when such challenges threatened to harm organizing goals. At the same time, they repudiated the claims of Communists to be the true supporters of black advancement in the labor movement. The connection of religious faith to the struggle for justice in the postwar South is surely far more complex than what exists in previous accounts.

Can we assume, then, that more than the doctrine of faith, it was this lived experience which placed the Christians ever anew before this difficult question: Of what use are history and politics to Christianity? Can we not make do without them? Tertullian's famous question – "What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?" – began a centuries-old dispute about the relation between theology and philosophy, between faith and reason, which became a principle axis of tension between Christianity and the Hellenistic legacy. But Tertullian's question can also be understood as pertaining to the problem of Christianity's relation to history and politics: What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem, the Agora with the Temple, the polis with the Church? Thus the tension between Christianity and the classical world takes on yet another dimension. It is the conflict of faith and eternity with history and politics, of the faithful pilgrim member of the People of God with the loyal citizen of a political community. Christianity attempted to resolve this conflict by reformulating the fundamental concepts of classical politics and philosophy, but the main doubts still remained, and led to new tensions and currents within Christianity itself.