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"The Long Sixties (1955-1973) were a period of economic prosperity, political unrest, sexual liberation, cultural experimentation, and profound religious innovation throughout the Western world. This social effervescence also affected the study of religion by reshaping the relationships between academic and religious institutions and discourses. While the mainstream churches sought to deploy the instruments of the social sciences to understand and manage the changing socioreligious context, prominent scholars regarded the bubbly spirituality of the counterculture as the harbinger of a new era; some of them actively used their academic knowledge to further this revolution. This book discusses the multiple entanglements of religion and science during these turbulent decades through theoretically informed case studies from both sides of the Atlantic"--

This article scrutinizes the Finnish religious insults and the related legal practice during the 21st century. It examines how the Office of the Prosecutor General, the courts, as well as the defendants construct the category of religion – i.e. that, which is a target of a special protection – and how the discourses on ethnicity and race play a part in that process. It is found, that ways in which the defendants construct the targeted groups with terms considered to be about religion, ethnicity or race affects the ways the officials construct these groups. This includes the practical abolishment of the formal category of religion, found in the letter of law, in favour of the popular one. Furthermore, it is argued, that while being part of the established religion discourse improves the chances for benefitting from the religious insult legislation, the said law, applied quite inconsistently, is found to be relatively ineffective avenue for groups seeking justice amid speech or actions considered to be religiously offending. More generally, the article demonstrates that the discursive study of religion can benefit from a perspective where empirically nearby categories (such as ethnicity and race) are incorporated into the analysis.

General introduction / Aaron Ricker -- Religion and cosmology / John T. Fitzgerald -- Calling down the spirits in the sky : Blackfoot astronomy and sense of the sacred / Eldon Yellowhorn -- To reverently bestow the seasons : calendrical narratives in early China and Rome / Rebecca Robinson -- Celestial deities in the flat-earth Buddhist cosmos and astrology / Jeffrey Kotyk -- Early Islamic encounters with the rain stars of pre-Islamic Arabian astronomy / Danielle Adams -- Cosmology and religious culture in Jewish and Byzantine art / Shulamit Laderman -- In search of the stars of David : situating the Rabbinic Jewish astronomical tradition in world cultural astronomy scholarship / Andrea D. Lobel -- The cosmos of a Big God : Brahe, Kepler, Bruno and the sizes of the stars in a Copernican universe / Christopher M. Graney -- Apocalyptic themes in Isaac Newton's astronomical physics / Stephen D. Snobelen -- Georges Lemaître's dual life in cosmology and theology / Simon Mitton and Rodney D. Holder -- Albert Einstein's cosmic religion / Nicholas Campion -- Market predictions : astrology in modern India / Parna Sengupta -- Faster than the speed of NASA : the tenth planet, prophecy and the universalization of a Gujarati village goddess / Darry Dinnell -- Radiance and darkness : Japanese Buddhist cosmographies / Melissa Anne-Marie Curley -- Abductions angelic and alien : the changing cosmologies of otherworldly journeys / James F. McGrath -- Astrophysics and religion / Arnold O. Benz -- The epistemology of Flat Earth theory : evidentialism, suspicion, and the ethics of belief / Jennifer Guyver -- Astrobiology, astroethics, and astrotheology in conversation / Grace Wolf-Chase -- Religious traditions and religious imagination in cosmos contexts / John Hart -- Wonder brokers : scientific wonder as spiritual authority in the Cosmos series (1980 and 2014) / Aaron Ricker -- Conclusion / Darry Dinnell.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Lists of figures and tables -- List of abbreviations -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1 The missing link: religion and British politics -- The research questions and conclusions of the book -- 1) What was the contribution of religion to the rise of Euroscepticism in Britain and the Brexit vote? -- 2) How does religion affect Euroscepticism? -- 3) How has the relationship between religion and voter behaviour in Britain changed because of rising Euroscepticism and/or Brexit? -- 2 Theorising religion and Euroscepticism -- What do we mean by 'Euroscepticism'? -- What do we mean by 'religion'? -- How does religion shape Euroscepticism? -- Religious belonging and Euroscepticism: the history of political and religious institutions -- Religious belonging and Euroscepticism: political ideology -- Religious belonging and Euroscepticism: religion and national identity -- Religious belonging and Euroscepticism: party identification -- Religious behaviour and Euroscepticism: elite cues and social capital -- Religious belief and Euroscepticism: Christian tenets -- Conclusion -- 3 Euroscepticism and religion before Brexit -- Religion and the 1975 referendum -- Religion and Euroscepticism after 1975: on the road to Brexit -- The change in the relationship between religious belonging and Euroscepticism -- Conclusion -- 4 Religion and the Brexit referendum -- Religion and vote choice in the 2016 referendum -- Identifying the religious effects -- Regression analysis results -- Conclusion -- 5 Untangling (in)direct effects of religion on Euroscepticism -- Structural equation modelling and the relationship between religion and Euroscepticism -- The effect of religion on utilitarian and affective Euroscepticism -- Analysis details and results -- Details of the SEMs -- SEM results.

"Does God exist? What about evil and suffering? How does faith relate to science? Is there life after death? These questions fascinate everyone and lie at the heart of philosophy of religion. Chad Meister offers an up-to-date introduction to the field, focussing not only on traditional debates but also on contemporary concepts such as the intelligent creator. Key topics, such as divine reality and the self and religious experience, are discussed in relation to different faiths. The wealth of textbook features, including tables of essential information, questions for reflection, summaries, glossary and recommendations for further reading make the book ideal for student use."--Jacket