Suchergebnisse

Though with a substantial Christian majority, the religious landscape of the US is increasingly diverse. The population of religious believers who are neither Christian nor Jewish has expanded from 7+% to 20+% since 1974. This speaks well for America's promise of religious liberty. However, there are new constitutional, political, & cultural challenges in church-state relations & tensions between religious & civil rights. Some universities now provide foot baths in restrooms & set aside time & space for prayer for Muslims. Prisoners in Pennsylvania have sued to have more books in their cells because of their church's reading requirements. Some special needs conflict with other special needs or the common good. This essay seeks to affirm the importance of, while acknowledging the limitations on, religious accommodations, which are typed as mandatory, permissible, & impermissible. Two recent US Supreme Court cases relating to religious accommodation are discussed, & a set of "Ten Commandments of Religious Accommodation" is offered to help legislators craft appropriate exemptions. Considered in conclusion are three implications of the widespread granting of religious exemptions from governmental regulation. J. Stanton

Beckwith reviews The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, Volume I: Odyssey of the Religion Clauses and The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, Volume II From 'Higher Law' to 'Sectarian Scruples' by James Hitchcock.

Neben den ethnischen Minoritäten tragen die unterschiedlichen religiösen Gruppierungen zur Unsicherheit und Destabilisierung der sudanesischen Politik bei. Sie determinieren eine Parteilandschaft, die ein demokratisches, liberales System, wie es durch die Wahlen vom April 1986 bestätigt wurde, verhindern. (SJ)

Abstract
This article explores the Scuola di Meditazione (School of Meditation) established in Sardinia in 1983, one of the earliest instances in Italy of the use of 'Eastern' techniques by Roman Catholic religious professionals to promote the practice of meditation for lay people. Against the backdrop of ongoing religious diversification in the Italian context, this case study provides an insight on religion under globalization as a complex and multilayered phenomenon. In particular, the formation and activities of the Scuola di Meditazione show to be ingrained in the working of the global cultural network, with both direct and indirect cultural imports from Asia through mediatization, missionization, and mobility; to build upon the broader global repositioning of the Roman Catholic Church towards Asian and other 'world' religions through the adoption of a soft inclusivist approach; and to provide a meaningful framework for glocal practices resulting in the globally-oriented reshaping of individual religious worlds.

The rise of foundational dualism and the eclipse of the body -- "Body am I entirely, and nothing else": non-reductive materialism and the struggle against dualism -- Toward a materialist phenomenology of religion -- The phenomenology of embodiment and the study of religion -- Religious bodies as social artifacts -- Holding social constructionism in check: the recovery of the active, lived body -- A cultural neurophenomenology of religion: enter the embodied mind -- The eclipse of practice: textualism at large -- "Ceci n'est pas un texte": from textualism to practice -- Expanding the conversation on emplaced religion -- Mobility, networks, and ecology

Religion ist in der gegenwärtigen Welt kein Privatvergnügen, sondern stets auch ein Machtfaktor, mit dem die jeweilige Kultur ihre Interessen verfolgt. Im Zeitalter der Globalisierung und der Präsenz von immer mehr Menschen unterschiedlicher Religionszugehörigkeit auch im Westen ist deshalb nicht nur der interkulturelle, sondern insbesondere auch der interreligiöse Dialog von dringender Notwendigkeit. Die Beiträge des vorliegenden Bandes sind einer Reihe von Fragen gewidmet, die diesen Dialog betreffen: Welchen Beitrag können andere Religionen zur westlichen Kultur leisten? Wo bestehen Korrektive und sinnvolle Ergänzungen zur westlichen Tradition? Wie würde eine Weltkultur aussehen, zu der alle großen Religionen gleichermaßen beitragen? Die ersten beiden Beiträge befassen sich mit dem Verhältnis von Kultur und Religion im Allgemeinen und der Frage, welche Spuren die Religionen in den Kulturen auch unter den Vorzeichen der Säkularisierung hinterlassen haben. Anschließend folgen religionswissenschaftliche Beiträge zu den einzelnen Weltreligionen unter der Fragestellung, welchen Beitrag zur Bildung einer Weltkultur sie bisher geleistet haben bzw. in der Zukunft zu leisten in der Lage sind. Besonders die inklusivistischen und exklusivistischen Tendenzen von Judentum, Christentum und Islam sowie des Hinduismus und Buddhismus in der Spannung zwischen Abgrenzung und fruchtbarer Auseinandersetzung stehen dabei im Zentrum des Interesses.

From within a religious tradition as complex and divisive as Christianity, Muddathir 'Abd al-Rahim, professor of Political Science and Islamic Studies at the International Islamic University of Malaysia, provides a resource-rich explication of human rights and duties in Islam. The difficult challenge for contemporary Hinduism-that being 'a recognition of plurality and distinctiveness on the one hand, and equality of human beings on the other'-is aptly illustrated in India's democratic Constitution, which calls for individual equality before the law and the freedom of religion; religious freedom for most Hindus, however, includes 'Karma and rebirth-and thus inequality at birth' (p. 175).