Suchergebnisse

John Adams' views on religion & politics are explained through the history & provisions of the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution, which Adams in large measure drafted. In a broad sense, Adams upheld as his first principle of political philosophy a balance of the freedom of many private religions with the establishment of one public Christian religion. For him, too little religious freedom is a recipe for hypocrisy & impiety, while too much religious freedom is an invitation to depravity & license. He advocated for a "mild & equitable establishment" of Protestantism. D. Miller

AbstractThis article seeks to clarify the uses and disadvantages of the concept of 'political religion', which has recently returned to currency, especially to account for the liturgy and the sense of world-historical mission central to Italian fascism, German Nazism and Soviet communism. But the category leads us to inflate abiding, suprahistorical impulses at the expense of historical specificity and novelty. And by making the phenomena in question seem relatively familiar, it diverts us from the deeper challenge they constitute. Still, the objections of critics often miss dimensions that 'political religion' at least approximates. Essential to the requisite synthesis is a recast notion of totalitarianism, understood as a novel frame of mind leading to a new mode of collective action.

Turkish politics experienced a major political realignment in 2002, when the Justice and Development Party came to power. This essay investigates the levels of trust in political institutions at this turning point of Turkish political life and by using the 2001 World Values Survey assesses the relative impacts of religion, economics, and political performance on that trust. Empirical results show that Turkish citizens lost a great deal of confidence in political institutions during the 1990s. Statistical analysis indicates that people's evaluation of political performance has the largest impact on political confidence, whereas religiosity has the least impact.

A comparative overview of the relationship between religion and politics, covering all the major regions - Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia - and religions.

Attempts to discern where Russia fits in the categories cast by Monsma and Soper to describe the relationship between the state and religious education with such questions as those concerning religious classes in public schools and funding and regulation of religious schools. Finds that Russia transcends the three categories, which are "partial establishments," "strict separation," and "pluralist or structural pluralist" models. In the case of Russia, only religions established there prior to the 1917 revolution have any legal standing towards recognition. Diagrams the history of the state and its considerations of religious training beginning at the Bolshevik rise to power after the revolution, right up to today. One problem seen today goes beyond mere polemic as bureaucratic entanglements strangle the process of regulation and licensing of schools, accreditation of classes between private and public, secular and religious schools, and issues of discrimination against religion in general. Additionally, the curriculums of many schools are simply too loaded to find room for other religious classes that many pedagogues would like to see implemented. On the whole, finds a great, possibly the greatest problem, to be inconsistency throughout the system and hopes for standardization, towards whatever perspective that may be in the end. References. S. Fullmer

Any reflection on the relationship between religion and politics in the Catholic thought cannot do without reminding the Augustinian distinction between the civitas Dei and civitas terrena. The goal and foundation of any just political community should be the orientation to wards the common good. In the contemporary catholic thought, Johann Baptist Metz proposes a political theology revolving around the concepts of the value of the human person, the necessary refusal, on the part of the Church, of any mundane ideology and the necessary use of the socially critical potential of theological thought. Hans Küng criticizes any politicization of theology. He insists on the development of an internal pluralism within the Church and advocates a self-limitation of the magisterial intervention in the world in the name of a necessary "eschato logical reserve". Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict the XVIth , invested with the magisterial authority, relies heavily on official documents of the Catholic social doctrine. He emphasizes the necessity of founding the state on the central value of justice and its acting according to the principle of subsidiarity. In this context, the Christian faith and the Church in particular may have a pedagogical role, as it may guide reason to follow the right priorities. All three thinkers agree on the public significance of the Christian vision of society and on the fact that it may help society both by its critical and by its constructive dimension.

Over the last twenty-five years, social & political movements which derive their inspiration & guidance from religion have become increasingly prominent actors on the global stage. Lari Nyroos has categorised these movements as engaging in a "dissident geopolitics". This article seeks to explore this categorisation through an analysis of geopolitical discussions presented in recent publications of Fethullah Gulen. Gulen is the intellectual & spiritual leader of a Muslim social movement based in Turkey & an active proponent of inter-religious dialogue at a global scale. From this analysis, it is concluded that Gulen does employ a geopolitical vision that is counter to the dominant understandings of modern geopolitics. While he does not oppose the actions of any particular state or the structure of the global state system, he subordinates both to a functional role within a transcendental order defined by religious faith. Adapted from the source document.

Religious concern is f'ly found in the works of Tocqueville, who saw in religion an essential basis for new societies & felt that a society threatened by disbelief could not prosper. In the midst of a world which leans toward disbelief, the only possible voice favoring religion seems to be the one followed in the US. Religion can exercise indirect power over politics by emphasizing tradition & maintaining respect for order. For Tocqueville therefore, religion is not only 'a particular kind of hope'; it is more than mere sentiment. Tr from IPSA by J. A.Broussard.

A review essay on books by (1) Saskia Gieling, Religion and War in Revolutionary Iran (London: I. B. Tauris, 1999); (2) Fred Halliday, Nation and Religion in the Middle East (London: Saqi Books, 2000); & (3) Ann Elizabeth Mayer, Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics (3rd edition, Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999). The review article assesses whether Islam is an "independent" force in Middle East politics or is, by contrast, molded by the social, economic, & political circumstances in the region. It comes down, on balance, in favor of the second view. It uses the books under review, which cover three major areas in the study of international relations, war, the nation-state & nationalism, & human rights, to demonstrate that Islam is malleable to political needs & requirements & can be interpreted to fit with particular historical moments & ideas. Islam's impact on international relations is therefore "unexceptional" in the sense that it can be assessed using universal categories of analysis. The article argues that the approach that focuses on the historicity & flexibility of Islam can be useful for analyzing the role of religion in IR generally. Adapted from the source document.