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The article deals with the socio-historical conditions of the formation of criticism of religion in the philosophy of sophists. It is shown that there were two directions in the religious criticism of the sophists. The first direction was associated with religious agnosticism. Protagoras defended the idea of the incomprehensibility of the gods. The statements of Gorgias and Xeniades contributed to the strengthening of religious skepticism. The second direction was connected with the development of theories of the origin of religion. Prodicus and his idea of the deification of useful things by ancient people is one of the first attempts at a rational explanation of the origin of religion. Critias' idea that the gods were invented in order to maintain public order challenged the entire religious consciousness of the Greeks. The theories of Prodicus and Critias contributed to the development of ancient atheism. It is established that the sophists adhered to an ambivalent position on the question of attitude to religion. On the one hand, the sophists did not seek to destroy religious institutions. They recognized the value of religion because they considered it one of the benefits of civilization. According to sophists, religion plays an important role in the life of society. It supports moral norms, laws and order. On the other hand, the views of the sophists posed a great danger to traditional religious beliefs. The views of the sophists contributed to the doubt of the existence of gods and the weakening of religious beliefs. It is established that the Peloponnesian War played an important role in the formation of the religious criticism of the sophists. The destructive nature of the Peloponnesian War led to the decline of moral and religious norms. The plague in Athens, the cases of genocide, the triumph of brute force and lawlessness contributed to the growth of distrust of public institutions and disillusionment with religion. All this created favorable conditions for the development of moral and ethical relativism and religious skepticism in the philosophy of sophists.

Many, especially in the West, have long argued against state religious establishments on the ethical grounds of the rights of freedom of conscience and personal autonomy. Situating the question of religious establishment within the field of Religion and Security&mdash ; an important and growing aspect of the Religious Studies discipline&mdash ; allows for new interpretive possibilities. This paper explores the impact of religious disestablishment on the state&rsquo ; s task of provisioning security from violent religious extremism. Could it be that states which have disestablished a formal or deeply embedded informal tie with religion are less able to provide security to their citizenry? I examine this question and develop the contention that religious disestablishment in the West has actually harmed the state&rsquo ; s capacity to deal effectively with violent religious extremism. In turn, this finding requires us to reconsider the normative bases of strict church/state separation and provides one element within a range of arguments for what I label &lsquo ; weak disestablishment.&rsquo

ZusammenfassungDer Beitrag liefert auf Grundlage eines Forschungsreviews erstmals einen systematischen und differenzierten Überblick zur empirischen Befundlage zum islamischen Religionsunterricht (IRU) in Deutschland. Der IRU erweist sich zunehmend als Gegenstand einer dezidiert empirischen, disziplinübergreifenden Forschung, in der sich die mehrdimensionale Interessenlage ihm gegenüber spiegelt, sich im Bildungssystem zu etablieren und gleichzeitig integrationspolitischen Ansprüchen gerecht zu werden. Dabei wird sowohl unmittelbar gegenstandbezogenes als auch kontextuelles Wissen zum IRU generiert, wobei die Forschung häufig eher (extrinsisch) auf den IRU im Verhältnis zur Gesellschaft und dessen Legitimation, Akzeptanz und Nutzen und weniger (intrinsisch) auf das Verstehen und die Entwicklung des IRU ausgerichtet ist. Daraus resultieren drei zentrale Erkenntnisse: Erstens liefert die bisherige Forschung wichtige Befunde, erlaubt jedoch kaum verlässliche und verallgemeinerbare Aussagen zum IRU hinsichtlich seiner gesellschaftlichen Situiertheit und (integrativen) Wirkung. Zweitens wird die auf das Verstehen und die Entwicklung des IRU gerichtete eher intrinsische Forschung teilweise durch Integrationsimperative überlagert und stellt weiterhin ebenso ein wichtiges Desiderat dar. Drittens ist die Forschung zum IRU stark am Status Quo orientiert und thematisiert kaum Fragen der zukünftigen Entwicklungen und Herausforderungen einer zunehmend multireligiösen säkularen Gesellschaft. Der Beitrag versteht sich damit als Momentaufnahme und zugleich Impulsgeber der IRU-Forschung, die sowohl Spiegel wie auch mögliche Triebkraft der Entwicklungen im Feld des IRU sein kann.

Based on some early anthropological accounts, people understand adat as any traditional practice: including visiting graves and forest, belief in supernatural powers, and other rituals and ceremonies. Practically speaking, people have not differentiated between the term adat and the encompassing traditions, customs, laws, and others. However, the discourse of religion has influenced the comprehensiveness of the idea of adat. This paper describes the construction of adat through the colonial period, a time dominantly influenced by the discourse of religion. I argue that the colonial construction of adat has strongly impacted religion in Indonesia. Adat which became a contested term and used by the rulers has declined the religious dimension of adat. The construction of adat and the disposition of adat from religion was influenced by various factors including colonial policies. This paper identified three dominant discourse of adat as political construction in colonial Indonesia: firstly, adat as animism was considered as the practices which are not religious, uncivilized and primitive; secondly, the mainstream of adat law has concerned on the secular aspect of adat while neglected the religious dimension of adat; thirdly, the construction of adat as not religion subsequently strengthened the Islamic identity and stressed the adat as opposed to Islam.

Abstract
When studying the Karimojong religion, it is instructive to examine the role of elders (ngikathikou), the centrality of animals in ritual ceremonies, and the pragmatic solutions that the religion provides to social problems. Elders act as intermediaries between the immediately present world and the supernatural. The Karimojong believe in God (akuj) who is believed to reside in the sky, overseeing and responsible for everything that is happening on earth. The hierarchical status of individuals prominent in the society reflects their relative proximity to the sacred and the Divine. Respected elders intercede and communicate with God differently, concerning social matters on behalf of the whole community. Special categories of elders gifted in communication such as prophets (ngikadwarak) attributed with the 'know how' of the society, diviners (ngimurok) who foretell the future, dreamers (ngikejurak) who interpret important prophecies and black magicians (ngikapilak). The black magicians are known to do bad things to others, but when they do good to save the community, they are regarded as virtuous and reliable. Not only the sacredness of such persons, but also places (ngakiriketa) where no creatures are killed, objects whose uses are reserved for religious ceremonies, and time periods reserved for such ceremonies, all have a correspondingly paramount importance in the Karimojong religious understanding of reality.

Today, the religious factor has become a part of the political processes and as such a catalyst of stabilization/destabilization of political space. This means that to ensure social and state security, we should identify the mechanisms and technologies that add political dimensions to religion. For several decades, politically biased religious organizations and their destabilizing influence remained limited to certain regions of the world. Today, radical Islamic movements threaten not only individual states and regions, but also the world community as a whole. Islamic extremism is no longer a local problem-it has become a transnational phenomenon. In the last few years, Islamic radicalism has spread far and wide to certain regions of the CIS (I have in mind Central Asia) and Russia (the Northern Caucasus, the Volga Area and Siberia). For a long time the North Caucasian peoples have been taught to think that the national and religious factors were inseparable, they were united by their religion, while the confession that was taking shape on the national soil imbibed local customs, traditions and rites.1 Similar processes are unfolding among the Islamic peoples of Siberia and the Volga Area.2 This adds urgency to the subject discussed and makes it much more interesting. © 2017, CA and CC Press AB. All rights reserved.

"Feminist theory has enhanced and expanded the agency, influence, status and contributions of women throughout the globe. However, feminist critical analysis has not yet examined how the assumption that religion is natural, timeless, universal and omnipresent supports sexist and race based oppression. This book proposes radical new thinking about religion in order to better comprehend and confront the systematic disempowerment of women and marginalized groups. Utilising feminist and post-colonial analysis of access, equity and violence, contributors draw on recent critical theory to collapse accepted boundaries between religion and secularity with the aim of understanding that religion is a technology of governance in its function, meaning and history. The volume includes case studies focusing on how the category of religion is deployed to perpetuate male hegemony and racist inequities in Australia, Mexico, the United States, Britain and Canada. This trenchant feminist critique and academic analysis will be of key interest to scholars and students of Religion, Sociology, Political Science and Gender Studies"--

Im Zuge der Entwicklung von der funktional differenzierten und verstaatlichten europäisch-amerikanisch-japanischen Regionalgesellschaft des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts zur erst jetzt vollständig verstaatlichten Weltgesellschaft des 21. Jahrhunderts hat sich der religiöse Fundamentalismus aus seiner staatsverfassungsrechtlichen Verankerung losgerissen, aber in den globalisierten Verfassungsregimes noch keine neue Verankerung gefunden. Die religiöse Wertsphäre scheint sich zu einem staatlich nicht mehr beherrschbaren System der Weltreligionen zu verfestigen. Die globalen Verfassungsregime sind in der Lage, wichtige Staatsfunktionen zu ergänzen und zu substituieren, sie scheitern aber bislang am Problem der sozial verträglichen und freiheitssichernden Implementierung von Kapitalismus und Religion. Beide scheinen sich der Kontrollmacht von Recht und Politik auf bedrohliche Weise zu entziehen. Die Effekte der globalen Vernetzung und Fundamentalisierung von Religion sind produktiv und destruktiv zugleich. Die Weltgesellschaft muss heute die Krise des globalen Kapitalismus und die Krise des religiösen Bürgerkriegs gleichzeitig lösen. (ICE2)

Der Autor zeigt am Beispiel der New Age-Bewegung und verwandter Phänomene, daß es sich bei der postulierten Trendwende im Verhältnis von Religion und Gesellschaft, bei der von einer überzogenen Vorstellung des Mythos der Säkularisierung ausgegangen wird, nicht um eine neuartige Erscheinung handelt. Sie setzt auf internationaler Ebene den Wandel sozialer Formen und Inhalte der Religion fort, die unter dem Begriff der "unsichtbaren Religion" seit den 60er Jahren gefaßt werden. Damit wird ein zunehmender Synkretismus, die Pluralität und die Marktorientierung der religiösen Institutionen einerseits, die Privatisierung und Subjektisierung religiöser Glaubensformen andererseits bezeichnet. Auf der Basis theoretischer und empirischer Untersuchungen wird der strukturelle Wandel hin zu neuen Sozialformen der Religion aufgezeigt und verdeutlicht, daß die New Age-Bewegung hinsichtlich ihrer kulturellen Dimension als esoterische Kultur bzw. magische Weltanschauung und hinsichtlich ihrer sozialstrukturellen Dimension als Kulte bzw. kultisches Milieu analysiert werden kann. Als Besonderheit der unsichtbaren Religion wird ihre Ganzheitlichkeit beschrieben. (HN)

Intro -- Imagine -- Preface -- Introduction -- Imagine No Religion -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4 -- Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6 -- Chapter 7 -- Chapter 8 -- Chapter 9 -- Chapter 10 -- Chapter 11 -- Chapter 12 -- Chapter 13 -- Chapter 14 -- Chapter 15 -- Chapter 16 -- Chapter 17 -- Chapter 18 -- Chapter 19 -- Chapter 20 -- Chapter 21 -- Chapter 22 -- Chapter 23 -- Chapter 24 -- Chapter 25 -- Chapter 26 -- Chapter 27 -- Chapter 28 -- Chapter 29 -- Chapter 30 -- Chapter 31 -- Chapter 32 -- Final Chapter 33 -- Personal Reflections -- Postscript -- Index -- Notes.

Die Autoren beschreiben in Einzelanalysen der italienischen Entwicklung im 19. Jahrhundert, wie sich die italienische Nationalidentität auf der Basis einer Synthese von Neuem und Alten, Klassischem und Volkshaften, von Tradition und Revolution herausbildete. Die katholische Religion stellte in besonderem Maße einen identitätsbildenden Faktor dar, was zu einem Denken führte, in dem traditionalistische und liberale Ansätze tendenziell in einer geschichtsphilosophischen und sogar providentiell-heilsgeschichtlichen Synthese konvergierten. (psz)

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ILLUSTRATIONS -- PREFACE Confronting Interreligious Violence -- ONE. SHARING THE BURDEN OF FIESTAS ACROSS BORDERS -- TWO. DRINKING AND THE DIVINE IN CHIAPAS AND TZINTZUNTZAN -- THREE. ACCOUNTING FOR MISSIONARIES AND MONEY -- FOUR. RESPONDING TO THE MINORITY: CATHOLIC SELF-IMPROVEMENT -- FIVE. RESPONDING TO THE MAJORITY: DOCTRINAL DISOBEDIENCE -- SIX. CONSIDERING THE CONSEQUENCES OF CONVERSION -- CONCLUSION Mobilizing Religion -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

This article informs students of urban religion about 'segmented assimilation theory' and urges theorists of this persuasion to incorporate religion in their models. Segmented assimilation theory acknowledges the undeniable fact that children of post-1965 immigrants to the United States typically become American, but unlike older concepts of assimilation, the new theory recognizes diverse paths to assimilation, with the immigrant second generation assimilating to one or another segment of the highly unequal U.S. social structure. Heretofore, religion has played at best an implicit role in the theory. This article proposes ways that religion can be incorporated explicitly and complexly into the theory. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2007 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

This article provides an introduction to an international study of religion on an 'ordinary day' in the news. Taking as its sample newspapers in the UK, Finland, Australia and Canada on 17 September in 2013, 2014 and 2015, the study aimed to provide a systematic analysis of ordinary or everyday coverage of religion in the news, providing an important contribution to research on religion in media, which tends to focus on specific events and controversies. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine global, national and local stories about conventional, common religion and the secular sacred, the study also provides insights into conducting multi-national and interdisciplinary projects. While the findings demonstrate a fairly standardized representation of religion in mainstream news, with cultural Christianity dominating, the varying national and political contexts throw up some interesting specificities relating to increasing diversity and secularization experienced within wider processes of globalization.